Oloka Shushupti

Oloka Shushupti is a lecturer in Soil Science at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD), Bangladesh Open University (BOU). She completed her BS in Soil, Water, and Environment in 2022 and her MS in Environmental Science in 2023 from the University of Dhaka. Her MS thesis focused on soil organic carbon dynamics and bacterial carbon-recycling enzymatic potential across diverse ecosystems, along with exploring how their enzymatic functionality can enhance plant growth and soil carbon retention by being used as a low-cost bioinoculant consortium.

Being an aspiring soil microbiology enthusiast, Oloka’s professional career began as a Research Intern at the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, where she received extensive training in microbial and molecular biology techniques relevant to soil and environmental sciences. She later served as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Environment and Development Studies at United International University, teaching undergraduate courses related to environmental chemistry and environmental biology through both theoretical and laboratory classes.

Alongside teaching, Oloka has been actively involved in research since her undergraduate years. Her research experiences include projects on organic farming, field-level nutrient assessment of potato and mustard crops, and heavy metal contamination in plants, fish, and river systems. She has also authored two peer-reviewed publications focusing on the effects of commercially available organic manures on Mentha spp., and another on plant functional traits and soil carbon sequestration under ambient and elevated carbon dioxide conditions.

Oloka has been awarded the National Science & Technology Fellowship (Biological Sciences) by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Bangladesh, for 2022–2023 period. Her research interests include biogeochemistry, soil organic carbon dynamics, spatial data analysis, microbial ecology, soil and environmental microbiology.