Welcome to the Cox Lab!
We are an applied plant pathology research lab at Cornell AgriTech, a research station located in Geneva, NY. Our program specializes in applied plant pathology of fruit systems in NY State. We are a part of the School of Integrative Plant Sciences within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.
We are especially interested in economically important diseases of apple including apple scab, fire blight, powdery mildew, summer fruit rots, and post-harvest diseases. Our mission is to provide a better understanding of the relationships between life history features of plant pathogens of fruit crops and applied disease management practices. Understanding the impacts that management practices have on aspects of pathogen life history such as survival, inoculum production, community structure, and propensity for resistance development will, in turn, allow for the sustainability and refinement of such practices to better manage disease.
Learn more about the people in our lab.
Research
Our research program focuses on integrating basic and applied research to develop improved management strategies for fruit diseases of concern to New York producers. Our applied research endeavors have focused on understanding the prevalence, development, selection, and mechanisms of practical antimicrobial resistance to both antibiotics and fungicides in populations of fruit pathogens. Hence, although much of our research is concerned with applied aspects of fruit diseases, a portion of our research program will be dedicated to conducting basic research in the hope of developing products with potentially broad or far-reaching applications.
Learn more about our research.
Outreach & Extension
New York State has a substantial fruit industry with apples being the premier fruit crop. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service in 2015, New York ranked second in the nation in terms of total bearing acreage (40,000 acres) and total utilized production value ($274.5 million USD) for apples alone. Our extension program develops educational programming and provides services for the diagnosis and management of fruit diseases in New York. The specific goals of our program are to work with stakeholders, cooperative extension, private consultants, and regulatory agencies to 1) develop educational material and tools to improve the diagnosis and management of fruit diseases in NY and promote pesticide stewardship practices, and to 2) provide services to help fruit stakeholders identify emerging disease concerns and overcome barriers to disease management specific to their operations.
Learn more about our outreach.
For disease updates, follow us on Twitter!
@fruitpathology
Teaching
Kerik teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in plant pathology and related areas. He currently co-teaches the introductory plant pathology course PLPPM3010 on the biology of pathogens that cause plant diseases, and the diagnosis and management of plant diseases. Topics include the biology of bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, viruses, and nematodes; disease cycles; plant disease epidemiology; and the principles and practices of plant disease management. Innovative, interactive teaching methods, such as Problem Based Learning, are a feature of many of his courses.
Learn more about our teaching.