Mansha Seth Pasricha grew up in New Delhi, India, and completed a BS (honors) in biochemistry from the University of Delhi. She was fascinated by how life evolved on the planet and did her PhD at Rutgers University in Kay Bidle’s lab, exploring the evolution of cell death proteins in early evolving microbes from the third domain of life, Archaea, that have been on the planet for 3.5 billion years.  In her post-doc in Siobain Duffy’s lab, Mansha explored evolution of double-stranded RNA viruses. As an associate research scholar in Jose Avalos’ lab, Mansha is utilizing the metabolic potential of extremophilic microbes in sustainability projects, bioremediation, and biomining. Outside of the lab, Mansha enjoys gardening, running, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.