October 2026 Spotlight (Susmita Sharma)
Susmita Sharma, First-year Master’s Student
About me: I am from Nepal, a beautiful country of hills and mountains. While I worked as an agriculture officer in my municipality, I also served as a Peace Corps volunteer supervisor and collaborated with them on beekeeping projects. I really liked working with bees and learning about them. This encouraged me to pursue my master’s in entomology. I am currently a first-year master’s student in Dr. Jamie Strange's lab.
Research: My research focuses on bumble bee morphology, mainly the wings and head. We are using a geometric morphometrics approach to distinguish morphologically similar North American bumble bee species.
Get to know!
Do you have a favorite dish to cook?
Yes, I love cooking Nepali Momo (Dumplings). I enjoy the process even though it's long; it always reminds me of the happy moments I shared with my family back home, as we used to make Momo whenever we had our family gatherings, and it was so fun.
What skill would you most like to learn?
For my research project, I need to capture images of bumblebee heads and wings using a microscope camera. Because of this, I am really interested in learning macro photography. I think it’s fun to see tiny, cute insects in large pictures. I think these pictures show us that they really exist and are a part of our lives and nature.
If you didn’t have any responsibilities, how would you spend your days?
I would cook my favorite food, read a fiction book, watch tons of movies with my husband, and do at least one creative thing a day, so I feel productive, ha-ha.
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Editor: Dahee Ahn