Professor
Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology
Plant Breeding & Genetics
Global Development

Krisztina is a soil ecologist researching the circular bionutrient economy as a way to reimagine the food system as one that does not rely on fossil fuels or create waste, but values nutrients from excreta that would otherwise pollute ecosystems and waterways. Krisztina weaves her passion for invertebrates, fungi and plants with the use of nutrients that every human produces in their urine as a means to reconnect people to nature. She has experienced the positive effects that humans can have on the Earth, specifically through the use of urine as fertilizer, a millenia-old practice, and finds this important to emphasize in contrast to the common narrative that humans only have negative impacts on Earth systems.

Krisztina joined the Nelson Lab in October 2023 after finishing her Ph.D. in soil ecology at McGill University, Canada. She completed a Master’s degree in Primatology at the University of Calgary studying insectivory of white-faced capuchins in Costa Rica after her Zoology degree at the University of Guelph.

In Krisztina’s research, she prioritizes ways that reciprocate rather than purely extract. Drawing on the teachings of food and medicine growers around the world that she gleaned from her life-long travels, she gardens following permaculture and biodynamic principles to make food and medicine for family and friends while giving back to the soil and local communities. She fulfills this in part by mentoring students and being a student herself of the Kanien’keha language and The Great Law of Peace with a special interest in ethnopedology.

Lucinda Li is a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University, School of Integrative Plant Science. She received her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan. Her current research is focused on closing nutrient loops by processing nutrient-rich waste into agricultural commodities. 

Jensen Njagi is a current Undergraduate student at Cornell University CALS as a Global Development major, with minors in Global Health and Business. He grew up in Mwea, Central Kenya where he developed an interest in food systems, and global health. He joined the Nelson Lab in the spring of 2023 and has since aided in field and lab work, including collecting data, setting up, and maintaining experiments. Currently in the Nelson Lab, he is working under Krisztina Mosdossy to identify microarthropods (quantity/distribution) in different growing media (soil and organic residues) to understand how they are affected by the nutritional ecology of these media. They are also interested in understanding how different amendments such as biochar, and fertilizers such as urine, and synthetic fertilizers could affect microarthropods. Outside of the lab, Jensen enjoys reading biographies and running.

Earl is an undergraduate with a background is in Food Science and Human Nutrition. He is currently involved in development of methods for nutrient recovery from human excreta fertilizers and crop nutrient analysis.

Employed at ReUse Industries, Ithaca, NY

Collaborating researcher in the Atkinson Academic Venture Funded MycoBuilt project.

Bachelors of Architecture degree in 2023 with a concentration in architectural science and technology

Dissertation: Northern Leaf Blight Resistance in Maize: Benefits, Costs, and High-Throughput Phenotyping

Post Doctoral Associate: Feed the Future Climate Resilient Cereals Innovation Lab (CRCIL)

Dissertation: Mitigating Maize Mycotoxins Across Scales

Faculty member at Seoul National University, Korea

PhD, MSU, Crop & Soil Science

 Technical Officer for Reaching the Very Poor at GAIN, Washington, DC

Postdoctoral associate at Tata Cornell Institute / Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

Dissertation: Participatory Mycotoxin Management in India and the Genetic Determinants of Symptom Manifestation in the Sorghum Grain Mold Complex

Research topic: Mycotoxins and grain sorting to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in maize

Investigating co-composting of maize residues and urine for raised-bed gardening

Supports training of CGIAR and NARES breeding networks on costing and genetic gain analysis at CIMMYT, Nairobi

Dissertation: Insights Into the Genetic and Environmental Bases of Mycotoxin Contamination in Kenyan Maize

Trait Introgression Breeder, Monsanto

Dissertation: Resistance to Gray Leaf Spot of Maize: Underlying Genetic Architecture and Associated Mechanisms

Project Paper: Exploring and Characterizing Major Resistance Genes for Northern Leaf Blight in Maize

Thesis: Coexistence of Sibling Species of Cercospora Causing Gray Leaf Spot on Maize in Southern New York State

Assistant Professor, National Taiwan University

Dissertation: Mapping and Characterization of Loci Conditioning Quantitative Disease Resistance in Maize

Professor, University of Delaware

Dissertation: The Genetic Architecture of Quantitative Resistance in the Cereals

PhD, MSU, Plant Breeding & Genetics

PhD, Pennsylvania State University