Plant Breeding (Graduate Field)
Field Description
Now is an exciting time to study plant breeding and genetics. People worldwide are more interested than ever in their food, its textures, nutritional quality, flavors, and medicinal applications, the stability and diversity of both supply and demand, and the impact of food production, consumption and distribution on human health and on the environment. Low-cost DNA and RNA sequencing methods, high throughput chemical analyses, remote sensing, gene editing, imaging, and robotics have increased the type and the volume of data that we can bring to bear on these questions. Computing and statistical methods have developed apace to bring it all together and enable us to make predictions about future varieties.
Cornell’s Field of Plant Breeding trains interdisciplinary scientists in the elaboration of new crop improvement breeding methods, the discovery of genetic mechanisms affecting economically important traits, and the creation of genetic stocks, germplasm, and crop varieties. We work across major crop categories such as cereals, forages, legumes, roots and tubers, diverse fruits and vegetables, cover crops, bioenergy crops, hemp, hops, and ornamental plants, seeking improvements in productivity, quality, disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and ecosystem services. We apply techniques spanning classical field evaluations, often using remote sensing and robotics, to high-throughput “-omics” data generation to computational pipelines, modeling, and prediction in these efforts. We promote collaborative and interactive work to improve shared learning and mutual support between fundamental, basic, translational and applied researchers. We are active in our pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion in plant breeding and recognize both past failings in our discipline and opportunities to reckon with this past. We are world leaders in innovative plant breeding research, teaching, extension to stakeholders, and science communication. We collaborate globally.
The Field of Plant Breeding welcomes applicants from around the world who are eager to be leaders in discovery and innovation and who seek to develop solutions to pressing problems and grand global challenges. We provide training that links current science with well-defined problems and methods to tackle them. Our alumni work at the cutting edge of their fields and are sought after in academia, government, and industry. We encourage prospective applicants to correspond directly with faculty members whose interests match their own. The list below outlines general topics of research and/or crops studied for each field member. Additional information, including more detailed descriptions of faculty research and courses, is available on the plant breeding website.