Plant Breeding & Genetics News

CALS News, Spotlights, Field Notes and FutureCasts of interest to the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section community in the School of Integrative Plant Science.

The latest news ...

Margaret Smith in corn field

News

Margaret Smith, “embodiment of the land grant mission,” elected emerita
After almost 50 years at Cornell – from an undergraduate student to a widely respected steward of Cornell’s land grant mission – Margaret Smith has been elected professor emerita. Smith came to Cornell in 1974 and earned her bachelor’s (’78) and...
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
Builder Jeff Gagnon uses the Ereasy spray system

News

‘Hemp house’ project kicks off new support for NYS hemp

With a $5 million investment from New York state, Cornell is building a processing hub and “service center,” where businesses can research, develop and prototype new hemp-based materials.

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
DEWAS team

News

Battling crop diseases without borders

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
Cornell’s Ignite Innovation Acceleration program logo

News

Cornell’s Ignite Innovation Acceleration program supports inventors, early-stage innovations

Six Cornell inventors developing projects in robotics, advanced materials, agriculture, biotechnology, AI for medical education and veterinary medicine have been selected for the spring 2025 cycle of the Ignite Innovation Acceleration program.

  • Nutritional Sciences
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
crates with potatoes on a farm

News

160 years of Cornell potato breeding: local collaboration & national impact
Boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew – potatoes are the most-consumed vegetable in New York and the U.S., accounting for $100 billion of the U.S. economy. Although New York’s share of total potato production has decreased over time, with...
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.