Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
A 27-year-old post-doctoral student at the Alabama A&M University was found dead earlier this month in a pond at the university’s research farm in Meridianville. The body of Lavanya Abburi was found the morning of April 1 by workers at the farm, about 1,200 yards away from her research station.
Investigator Jeremy Hughes, a spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, told News India Times that Abburi was afraid of water and could not swim. Her body had marks on it that the preliminary investigation has not been able to explain and although her car was at the farm, her keys and cell phone have not been found. Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology and other tests in the hopes that they help determine how Abburi died, Hughes said.
Meanwhile as investigations continue, Abburi’s sister left for India with the body April 9, The Indian Express reported. The last rites would be performed at Pedareddy Palem, her native village near Narsaraopet in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Abburi’s course mates, colleagues and professors at the university are puzzled by her death and told AL.com that her work involved plants – which had not yet been planted at the time of her death – and that her work did not involve the pond. Her A&M research supervisor, Rao Mentreddy, said she was even afraid to drive in the rain. He and fellow students all said her work was with plants and had nothing to do with the pond so there was never any reason to be near it in the first place.
Abburi came to Alabama last spring , when she enrolled in Alabama A&M’s biological and environmental sciences department. Her research involved the molecular biology, trait variations and gene-mapping of watermelons. She came here to study watermelon traits and biotechnology after completing her second master’s degree at West Virginia State University. Before these two American universities, Abburi lived her entire life in India.
Abburi’s West Virginia State University supervisor, Umesh Reddy, described her as “a very hard working and diligent student.” Abburi always maintained high standards and ethics in her endeavors, and was a well-behaved student and showed dedication toward her studies, Reddy said in a statement emailed to News India Times.
Abburi completed her bachelor of science in Biotechnology from Nagarjuna University, Andhra Pradesh, from 2003 to 2006, and later a master of science in Biotechnology in Nehru College, Coimbatore, from 2007-2009. She was part of the master of science program in Biotechnology at West Virginia State University (WVSU) in Institute, from 2010 to 2013, working in the laboratory of plant genomics.
She associated with several research projects while at WVSU and coauthored in six peer-reviewed publications. Her co-authored papers are published in Journal of Heredity, Molecular Genetics and Genomics, BMC Genomics, G3, Journal of Experimental Biology and Molecular Breeding.
The post Alabama A&M University Student Found Dead on Campus appeared first on News India Times.
