Grand Challenge Fellowships

The School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) is offering three two-year fellowships to graduate students for research tackling our Grand Challenges.

The program seeks to:

  • Recruit and support a diverse cohort of SIPS graduate students.
  • Catalyze engagement with the four SIPS Grand Challenges.
  • Stimulate new inter-sectional collaborations within SIPS.

Contact associated faculty for more information about each fellowship.

2025 Fellowships

Understanding factors limiting recombination in interspecific grape hybrids 

Faculty in the Graduate Fields of Horticulture and Plant Biology are collaborating to understand factors that limit recombination in grape hybrids to inform development of improved breeding methods. 

New York is the nation’s third leading grape producing state. Developing grape varieties that will thrive in our changing climate is critical to the sustainability of the state’s viticulture and winemaking industry.  

Interspecific and intergeneric hybridization offers valuable opportunities for developing valuable traits, such as novel flavors and aromas and disease resistance. But in interspecific grape hybrids, large genome regions are recombination deprived, limiting trait introgression. The exact extent of these regions, their genomic characteristics and the source of the recombination suppression are not well understood. 

This project will seek to better understand where and why recombination is suppressed in grape hybrids by: 

  • Investigating the meiotic recombination landscape in interspecific grape hybrids. 
  • Exploring how these recombination patterns correlate with known introgression regions. 
  • Identifying avenues to improve success of wide-cross introgression. 

These objectives will be accomplished through investigation of existing hybrids in the Cornell Grape Breeding program, such as exploration of the region surrounding the RUN1 locus introgressed from Muscadine grapes (Muscadinia rotundifolia) and through the development and investigation of novel interspecific and intergeneric grape crosses. 

Collaborating labs: 

Investigating crop and weed cold tolerance in a changing climate 

Faculty in the Graduate Fields of Soil and Crop Sciences, Plant Biology, and Plant Breeding and Genetics are collaborating to learn more about how changes in winter weather due to climate change affect the survival and range of winter pea (Pisum sativum, and important crop grown for grain, forage and as a cover crop) and Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense, one of the planet’s worst invasive weeds). 

This research will generate fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms of freeze tolerance and cold acclimation in crop and weed species and apply this knowledge to enhance sustainability of crop production in the context of climate change. 

Working with faculty mentors, the fellow will have autonomy to design specific projects that may include (but are not limited to): 

  • Identifying genetic mechanisms associated with freezing tolerance in P. sativum. 
  • Evaluating genetic diversity of cold tolerance of S. halepense across Hardiness Zone 4 (northern New York) to Zone 7 (Long Island), and in controlled environments. 
  • Developing growth chamber protocols with improved predictive ability for winter survival across diverse field conditions. 

Collaborating labs: 

 

Two birds with one stone: Building scalable predictive analytics to advance plant breeding and yield forecast with chlorophyll fluorescence remote sensing 

Faculty in the Graduate Fields of Soil and Crop Sciences, and Plant Breeding and Genetics are collaborating to refine a remote sensing technique that better predicts crop yields, aids plant breeding and improves food security. 

When remotely sensed, Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF), via its mechanistic linkage to electron transport rate (ETR), offers promise to work effectively at both the field and regional scales. 

A model developed by the Sun Lab using SIF has proven to be a robust and scalable approach to estimating crop yield in the U.S. Corn Belt and India’s Indo-Gangetic Plain -- even outperforming AI models, especially under stress. But the broader potential of using the model to accelerate crop breeding in the developing countries that are most food insecure and vulnerable to climate changes has yet to be explored.  

The fellow in this project will engage in two primary research tasks. They will:  

  • Use the model to forecast county-level yield in South Africa and Malawi, where there is sufficient high-quality historical ground data for validation. 
  • Collect SIF measurements at Cornell’s Musgrave Farm (30 miles north of the Ithaca campus) and apply the model to compute yield and infer other phenotypical traits (e.g., chlorophyll content, rubisco activities).  

For both tasks, we will compare the model’s performance against AI and crop growth models. 

Collaborating labs: 

Previous Fellowships

AI and evolution-guided genomic models for stress resilience

In the Graduate Field of Plant Biology and the Graduate Field of Plant Breeding, faculty are investigating AI and evolution-guided genomic models for improving stress resilience in crops.

This research aims to use big data to answer fundamental questions about how plants respond to abiotic stress and how these responses evolve over time. Using the Poaceae (grass) family as a model, the fellow will use phylogenomic, protein structure and AI approaches to identify genes and molecular networks involved in abiotic stress responses and validate predictions experimentally using available genetic resources.

This research will help in generating new genetic targets for breeding stress resilience into crops and contribute towards a vibrant computational plant biology community in SIPS.

Participating labs: 

Recipient: Szu-Ping Chen

Programmable DNA-sensing bacteria using wine grapes as a model system

In the Graduate Field of Horticulture and the Graduate Field of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, faculty are collaborating on a project aimed at developing a programmable DNA-sensing bacteria for application in the plant sciences, using wine grapes as a model system.

The fellow will be co-advised by both PIs and will have the opportunity to innovate and propose experimental approaches related to their interest areas within the project's research framework. Interest areas may include viticulture, directed evolution, synthetic biology, molecular ecology, vineyard trials, or disease forecast modeling. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work directly with farmers, and to become proficient in molecular biology, microbial ecology, and field and/or laboratory experiments.

Participating labs:

Recipient: Joshua Ploshay

Optimizing growth standards for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)-grown teen-leaf lettuce

Faculty in the Graduate Field of Horticulture and the Graduate Field of Plant Biology are collaborating on a project to develop and optimize growth standards for CEA-grown teen-leaf lettuce, develop real-time methods for determining critical environment and growth standards (including sensing, imaging and artificial intelligence), and discover phenotypic predictors (including 3-D architecture and plant anatomical data) to be used as selectable traits in subsequent plant breeding efforts.

The position will also catalyze collaborations at the University of Maastricht and Nunhems with opportunities for research in the Netherlands. 

Participating labs:

Recipient: Ava Forystek

Multiple herbicide-resistant common waterhemp population investigations

Faculty in the Graduate Field of Horticulture and the Graduate Field of Soil and Crop Sciences are collaborating on investigations into multiple herbicide-resistant common waterhemp populations from New York. Specifically, the fellow will conduct greenhouse, laboratory, and field studies to describe the resistance profiles among populations and to develop integrated strategies for the management of multiple herbicide-resistant common waterhemp.  

The fellow will have the opportunity to be exposed to diverse cropping systems (i.e., field crops and specialty crops) and training experiences and will also get opportunity to engage with their peer cohort during Cornell agroecology group discussions where weed-science focused graduate students solicit advice regarding research methodology, experimental design, and data analysis and provide updates on their respective projects. The student will be expected to participate and present the research findings at regional and national weed science meetings as well as at local extension events. 

Participating labs:

Recipient: Henrique dos Santos Scatena