Cornell University Registrar

Field Description

Plant pathology and plant-microbe biology are the study of plant diseases and the biology of plant-microbe interactions at the molecular to ecosystem levels of organization. The field of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology at Cornell offers graduate degree programs in plant pathology and the biology, genetics, and evolution of fungi and oomycetes.

In addition to plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, Cornell University offers graduate programs that cover the full spectrum of plant sciences. View more information on graduate studies in related fields of plant sciences.

Data and Statistics

• Research Master's Program Statistics
• Doctoral Program Statistics

Field Manual

• Manual

Subject and Degrees

Plant Pathology

 

Concentrations by Subject

Plant Pathology

• fungal and oomycete biology
• plant pathology
• plant-microbe biology

Faculty

Maricelis Acevedo

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology
• Research Interests: cereal rust pathology and pathogen population biology, international plant pathology aspects, host resistance

Adam Bogdanove

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: bacterial pathogens of plants; especially molecular interactions of Xanthomnas oryzae with rice; TAL effector biology and application; genome editing for disease resistance; fungal effector biology

Kathryn Bushley

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Characterization of secondary metabolism in fungi and investigating roles of secondary metabolites in host-fungal interactions. Emphasis on root endophytes and insect pathogenic and nematode parasitic fungi.

Lance E. Cadle-Davidson

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: genetics and genomics of disease resistance; fungal and oomycete pathogens of grapevine

Clare L Casteel

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Viral pathogens of plants; vector-borne plant pathogens; ecological and molecular basis of virus-host and virus-vector-host interactions; molecular basis of plant defense responses to viruses and vectors

Scott David Cosseboom

• Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology
• Research Interests: Plant Pathology, Tree Fruit Pathology, Epidemiology, Disease Management, Extension

Kerik D. Cox

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: orchard fungal ecology; extension pathology; pesticide management; fruit pathology

Zhangjun Fei

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant-microbe biology

Melanie Filiatrault

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Role of small non-coding RNAs and RNA binding proteins in the biology of bacterial plant pathogens; the development of new approaches to perform global transcriptome profiling

Marc Fuchs

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: virus diseases of fruit and vegetable crops; biology, epidemiology and management; development of virus-resistant fruit crops by genetic engineering

Katie Gold

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology
• Research Interests: Grape Disease Ecology & Epidemiology, oomycete biology, epidemiology, and control; data science; digital agriculture; vegetative spectroscopy; proximal and remote sensing.

Zachariah Robert Hansen

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology
• Research Interests: Potato pathology, plant pathology, plant disease management, plant-pathogen interactions.

Maria J. Harrison

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: elucidation of the molecular basis of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and phosphate transport in plants

Frank Stewart Hay

• Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology
• Research Interests: Plant Pathology, Disease Management, Fungal Biology, Nematodes, Vegetables

Michelle L Heck

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology

Kathie Hodge

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: systematics and ecology of pathogenic and symbiotic fungi, especially those that are pathogens of insects; director of the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium

Dominique Holtappels

• Campus: Geneva
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Biological control, controlled environment agriculture, bacterial diseases, plant pathology, disease management, plant-microbe interactions

Jian Hua

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: genetics of temperature responses in plants; regulation of plant defense responses

Lori Huberman

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: How fungi interact with the environment Nutrient sensing in filamentous fungi High-throughput functional genomics

Awais Khan

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Genetics of host disease resistance; Genetic improvement of disease resistance; Pathogen population genetics; International Agriculture; Current research focus is fungal (apple scab) and bacterial (fire blight) diseases and pathogens of apples

Rebecca Judith Nelson

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: genetics of quantitative disease resistance; international agriculture; current focus on two diseases of maize that are important both in the United States and in Africa: northern corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot

Teresa Pawlowska

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: biology and evolution of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (phylum Glomeromycota)

Sarah Jane Pethybridge

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology

Silvia Restrepo

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Potato pathology, plant-microbe interactions, plant pathology

Jocelyn K. C. Rose

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: structure, function and dynamics of the plant cell wall and apoplast during development and plant-pathogen interactions; coupling biochemistry with newly developed approaches involving genomics and proteomics; tomato issued as a model system to study wall and apoplastic dynamics in ripening fruits and in vegetative tissues in response to microbial challenge

Christine Durbahn Smart

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: biology and management of vegetable diseases; host-pathogen interactions

Paul Stodghill

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Computational methods for analyzing large datasets from high-throughput biological experiments

Bryan Swingle

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Bacterial phytopathogen biology and functional genomics

Barbara Gillian Turgeon

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: genetics and molecular biology of fungal pathogens

Gregory Martin Vogel

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: fungal and oomycete biology; plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: Disease resistance, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Vegetable Diseases

Xiaohong Wang

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Plant Pathology: plant pathology; plant-microbe biology
• Research Interests: molecular basis of plant-nematode interactions; host resistance to the potato cyst nematodes