Making Magic

I joined the Horticulture Section faculty in 2022 as an associate professor of fruit crop physiology and climate adaptation. Previously, I was a Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Unit, located at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York.

My research program broadly works to understand how climate stresses impact plant growth and performance. I have always been intrigued with how traits are inherited, inspired by Mendel’s peas since high school. I also love trying to understand how biology works. Blended together, you get the genetics and physiology of climate adaptation. My research program focuses heavily on phenotyping and understanding the mechanism behind winter physiological processes of cold hardiness, dormancy, chilling requirement, and spring growth phenology. Key to the questions in this area are how rising winter temperatures impact the predictability of these traits and the impact on crop resilience over time. We use field sampling and lab assays coupled with transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches to answer these questions. In addition to winter research, the program is investigating how climate variation impacts fruit growth and quality. In grapevine we focus on how temperature and water impact fruit ripening predictability across the varied microclimates of New York State. In apple we are examining how growth rate and humidity interact to influence fruit cuticle disorders like russets and lenticel breakdown. Other research in the lab explores tree architecture, vascular traits, woody plant wound healing, graft physiology and clonal epigenetics.

My extension program goals are to provide research driven-tools and information to the New York fruit crop industry focusing on adapting crops to climate-change-induced environmental stress. I work collaboratively with other faculty members, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and stakeholders to identify climate induced disorders, develop mitigation methods, and improve the resilience and sustainability of fruit crop production through applied research.

I manage the Cornell grapevine cold hardiness monitoring program and associated website. My current research is focusing on understanding aspects of winter hardiness and spring deacclimation in apples and grapes to identify the rootstocks and scion combinations that provide the greatest resistance to early winter warming conditions.

After completing a bachelors at The University of Göttingen in Molecular Ecosystem Sciences, Hanna began her research journey through an internship at Cornell AgriTech in 2016. She then continued with lab and field research as an ORISE participant through the USDA-ARS-GGRU, also at Cornell AgriTech. Hanna then transitioned from the USDA to the Horticulture Section at Cornell University in 2022 where she continues to share her expertise in perennial fruit crop research in the field and lab.

Sophie supports field, greenhouse, and lab operations across the lab’s grapevine and apple projects, as well as keeping all of the lab up to date in computer technology and 3D printing.

Suzanne supports field, greenhouse, and lab operations across the lab’s grapevine and apple projects, particularly helping with apple cold hardiness work.

Brandon completed his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He first came to Geneva, NY as a Cornell AgriTech Summer Scholar in 2019, and joined the lab of Dr. Marc Fuchs within the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section. Brandon has developed a passion for molecular benchwork and computational biology to understand host and pathogen interactions through RNA-Seq, genomics, and proteomics. He joined the lab in May 2025 as a post-doc where he is investigating the molecular components of grapevine climate adaptation.

Griffin is a PhD student studying the physiology and biochemistry of fruit cuticles. More specifically, he is working to understand the timing and mechanism behind two apple disorders, scarf skin and late russet. Broadly, his interests pertain to ecophysiology and how plants respond to the environment.

Jennifer is a PhD student investigating vineyard floor management, cover crops, and microclimate effects in New York vineyards, with particular focus on frost damage and mitigation. As an extension professional, Jennifer is personally driven by the goal of reducing costs and risks to the Concord industry in Western New York.

Sarah is a PhD student investigating the genetics of vascular traits and apple shoot and root architecture. Using mapping populations grown at Cornell AgriTech and segregating for dwarfing (Dw1, Dw2), Co (columnar), and We (weeping) loci, she is combining branch and leaf angle phenotyping with root anatomy and molecular markers to understand whether the genetic signals that shape above-ground tree architecture are recapitulated in root system architecture.

Davis is a PhD student studying viral impacts on apple growth and production. His work centers on Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV), using in situ hybridization to localize virus in apple tissues, QTL mapping to identify rootstock resistance loci, and comparative physiology of virus-clean versus virus-infected trees.

As a 2025 Cornell Summer Scholar, Lacie studied crop load and shading effects on SnapDragon® apple fruit growth rate (mentor: Griffin Erich).

As a 2024 Cornell Summer Scholar, Ben studied variation in apple tree stomatal traits and machine-learning approaches to high-throughput phenotyping (mentor: Kenneth Buck).

As a 2023 Cornell Summer Scholar, Jieli studied the effect of abiotic stress and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation on apple tree growth (mentor: Kenneth Buck).

As a 2023 Cornell Summer Scholar, Yue studied the effect of tetralone-ABA on grapevine phenology and gene expression (mentor: Hongrui Wang).

As a 2022 Cornell Summer Scholar, Sarah studied the genetic architecture of variation in stomatal conductance in apple (mentor: Jason Londo).

As a 2022 Cornell Summer Scholar, Lauren studied variation in stomatal conductance in wild and domesticated grapevine (mentor: Jason Londo).

Al earned his PhD studying the kinetics, genetics, and morphometrics of cold hardiness loss (deacclimation) in grapevines. He is now an Assistant Professor running the Plant Resilience Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where his work continues to investigate cold hardiness and dormancy processes in cranberry and forest tree systems.

Andrew earned their PhD studying the genetic architecture of fruit quality traits in apple derived from Malus prunifolia. Andrew is now a teaching postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University.

Hongrui earned his PhD studying dormant-season viticultural resilience through transcriptomics of cold acclimation, phenomics of deacclimation, and AI-empowered modeling of grapevine cold hardiness. He is now continuing that work, modeling grapevine growth and response to increasing temperatures as a postdoctoral researcher in Bordeaux with INRAE.

Kenneth earned his PhD studying rootstock × scion effects on apple bud cold hardiness through electrolyte leakage assays, multispectral aerial drone imaging, and RNA-seq across multiple growing seasons in New York apple orchards. He is now a postdoctoral scholar with Dr. Lee Kalcsits at Washington State University.

Nathan completed his MPS (2022–2023), studying the history and genetic fingerprinting of pre-Prohibition grapevines from the Midwest. He is now Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Stone Hill Winery in Hermann, Missouri.

Michael completed his MPS (2020–2021), studying clonal variation in winter physiological traits of grapevine. He is now a PhD student in the lab of Dr. Larry Smart at Cornell University.

Judith is a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). She visited the lab as a PhD candidate in agricultural micro-meteorology at Delft University of Technology to study the impact of solar radiation on bud and stem temperature and changes in soil temperature with and without snow cover.

Marine earned her PhD in viticulture at INRAE Bordeaux and is now starting a postdoc in cherry research at INRAE. She visited the lab to examine the genetic architecture of vigor control in own-rooted and grafted grapevines.

Gabriela is a PhD candidate in genomics and bioinformatics at Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile. She visited the lab to examine the relationship between cold hardiness and dormancy in tart cherry.

Phil supported field and lab work as a technician and now works as a vineyard manager in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Lincoln supported field and lab work as a technician. He currently works as a technician in the Grape Breeding program at AgriTech (PI: Maddy Oravec).