Madeline (Maddy) Oravec

As Assistant Professor of Grapevine Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics based at the Cornell AgriTech campus in Geneva, N.Y., I lead the Cornell Grapevine Breeding Program. I am faculty in the Horticulture Section and am an affiliate of the Plant Breeding & Genetics Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science.

My research program focuses on the genetic understanding and improvement of grapes, with an emphasis on fruit quality, environmental resilience, and biotic resistance. My breeding objectives include developing and releasing novel, resilient, and high-quality wine and table grape varieties and integrating modern phenotyping, genotyping, and selection technologies to improve breeding efficiency.

Before coming to Cornell, I earned my M.S. in Horticulture at Purdue University and Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics at University of Wisconsin – Madison.  I then held two postdoctoral positions, one at the University of Minnesota in a circadian biology lab and the other at UW-Madison in a root vegetable breeding and genetics lab.

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