Riley Harding

I am also a member of the Cornell AgriTech community where I am a lab manager of a vegetable entomology lab that focuses on the biology and ecology of the main pests of vegetable crops in New York State. I received my B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Vermont in 2014. Since then I’ve traveled to Ireland twice as a WWOOFer (world-wide opportunities on organic farms) and worked on a few organic farms in NYS where I honed my cultivation and horticultural skills. My current role involves conducting research trials on various insect pests of vegetable crops. Predominately, the major pests we focus on managing are onion maggot, onion thrips, Colorado potato beetle and most recently the allium leafminer. My area of expertise belongs to establishing field trials, crop maintenance, applying crop protectants and assessing damage by insects as well as the diseases or viruses they transmit. I also have extensive experience characterizing viruses from both plant and animal samples by utilizing DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR technologies, respectively. I also have experience conducting pesticide sensitivity bio-assays to screen onion thrips populations for susceptibility to a commonly used insecticide. What I like most about my role is that I oversee both the fieldwork and the lab-work. This allows me to understand what is happening in a given environment on both a macro- and micro-scale. But most of all, I appreciate the applied research we do because there is a direct means to the end. Pointedly, we conduct this research in order to improve management of a given pest and directly convey this to growers.

February 2019