Prof. Dr. Padma Nimmakayala currently works at the Department of Biology, Gus R. Douglass Institute, West Virginia State University. She holds a B.Sc. in Agric gained from the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, an M.Sc. in Genetics & Plant Breeding gained from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and a Ph.D. in Genetics & Plant Breeding from the University of Agriculture Sciences. From 1992 to 1998, she served as a Research Scientist at the Indian Council of Agriculture Research. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship in 2001 at Texas A&M University. Her research program focuses on molecular marker development, genetic and physical mapping, and marker-assisted selection in vegetable crops (pepper, watermelon, sweet potato, and other cucurbits).