Dr. Vasiliy Lakoba

PHD FELLOW ALUMNI  |   Global Change Center

Director of Research, American Chestnut Foundation at Meadowview Research Farms

VT Alumni April 2021,  School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Advisor: Dr. Jacob Barney

vtlakoba@gmail.com

Vasiliy Lakoba was a PhD student in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, joining Jacob Barney’s Invasive Plant Ecology Lab in July 2017, and successfully defend his dissertation in April of 2021. His research focused on Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense), including its belowground ecology and interaction with land management practices and policies.

For his undergraduate training, Vasiliy completed a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree at Syracuse University in 2011, where his thesis proposed a design for early education with a didactic approach to natural resources reliance. He then worked for three years on the design of architectural projects in Southeast Alaska, including indigenous cultural centers and historic sites, libraries, and commercial structures.

Vasiliy is a 2017 graduate of Penn State University with a dual-title M.S. in Landscape Architecture and Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment. His thesis used mixed quantitative methods to study ecological and social facets of forest restoration planning using GIS tools that landscape architects can adapt to practice. During his time at Penn State, Vasiliy served for two years as the project coordinator of the Hartley Wood Wildflower Trail project. The project features ongoing restoration of understory species in an old-growth white oak-dominant forest remnant at The Arboretum at Penn State.

Vasiliy is currently the Director of Research at the American Chestnut Foundation at Meadowview Research Farms.