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Discovery that Connects

Science-based innovation for a changing world

SIPS Seminars – Fall 2019

To view the provisional lists of SIPS section seminars for Fall 2019, click on the Section name of interest below. These lists are intended to replace the seminar listings that were formerly distributed as PDFs. These PDFs are no longer posted online because of their failure to meet the web accessibility standards to which Cornell is legally bound. Listings below are provisional and subject to change over the course of the semester.

Sources of seminar information:

SIPS Sections:


Horticulture (return to top)

September 9
Robert Zarr, Park Rx America
Don Rakow
Horticulture Section, Cornell
“Nature Prescriptions as a Component of Nature  Rx Programs”

September 16
Jeff Perry, Horticulture Section, Cornell
“Intersections between School Agriculture Education and Horticulture“

September 23
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
“The Role of Agroforestry in Promoting Landscape Multifunctionality in Rural and Urban Areas”
SIPS Seminar – contact: GSA

September 30
Peter Davies, Plant Biology Section, Cornell
“The Return of Peas as a Model Plant for Plant Development”
Don Rakow

October 2
Donald Ort, University of Illinois
“Optimizing Antennae of Crop Canopies“
SIPS Seminar – contact: Bob Turgeon

October 7
Tradd Cotter, Author, Mycologist
“Mushroom Farming in the 21st Century”

October 14
No seminar

October 21
Christopher Currey, Iowa State University
“Improving Controlled Environment Culinary Herb Production”
contact: Neil Mattson

October 28
Zachary Stansell, Horticulture Section, Cornell
“Deconstructing Broccoli: Complex Traits  are Illuminated by an Immortal Mapping Population”
Contact: Thomas Bjorkman

November 4
Kim Vallejo, Ag & Markets, NYC
“Connecting Dots: Working within Urban Food Systems to Support Agricultural Producers”
contact: Chris Watkins

November 11
Myla Aronson, Rutgers University
“Biodiversity in the Concrete Jungle: Ecology, Management and Design for Plant Diversity in Urban Landscapes”
contact: Jenny Kao-Kniffin

November 18
Anya Osatuke, Horticulture Section, Cornell
“The Strawberry Special: An In-Depth Look at Strawberry Quality when Comparing between Growing Practices in New York State“
contact: Marvin Pritts

November 25
Bryan Brown, IPM, Cornell University
“Developing an Integrated Approach to Manage Agricultural Weeds “

December 2
Juana Munoz Ucros, Horticulture Section, Cornell
“How Rhizosphere Processes Change under Drought Stress”
contact: Taryn Bauerle

December 9
Todd West, North Dakota State University
“Woody Plant Ornamental Breeding”
contact: Brandon Miller


Plant Biology (return to top)

July 12
Junsik Choi, Plant Biology Exit seminar
“Nuclear Lamina Proteins in Plants and Their Involvement in Pathogen Response and Development”
contact: Eric Richards

July 25
Heather Meyer, Carnegie, Department of Plant Biology
“Investigation of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins as Possible Thermo-Sensors to Time Flowering in Arabidopsis Thaliana”
contact: Adrienne Roeder

July 26
Yuling Jiao, Chinese Academy of Sciences
“A Self-Activation Loop Maintains Meristematic Cell Fate for Shoot Branching”
contact: Adrienne Roeder

August 29
Dan Grimanelli, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement
“Deciphering the Role of Heterochromatin in Maize Reproductive Development”
contact: Michael Scanlon

September 6 – Career Seminar
Li Li, USDA, Cornell
“Working for USDA to Harness Carotenoid Metabolism”
contact: Adrienne Roeder

September 13 – Life Science Lecture Series, 4:00 pm, G10 Biotech
Elliot Meyerowitz, California Institute of Technology
“Mechanical Feedbacks in Plant Morphogenesis”
contact: Michael Scanlon

September 20
Joyce Chery, Penn State University
TBA
contact: Jeff Doyle

September 23 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
“The Role of Agroforestry in Promoting Landscape Multifunctionality in Rural and Urban Areas”
contact: GSA

September 27
Yunde Zhao, University of California, San Diego
“Gene Editing Technology in Plants: Optimization and Applications in Auxin Biology”
contact: Li Li and Adrienne Roeder

October 2 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Donald Ort, University of Illinois
“Optimizing Antennae of Crop Canopies”
contact: Bob Turgeon

October 11
Lloyd Sumner, University of Missouri
“Integrated Metabolomics Technologies and Applications”
contact: Gaurav Moghe

October 15 – Weill Institute Symposium
Dominique Bergmann, Stanford University
“Making a Difference: Flexible Development in a Changing World”
contact: Weill Institute

October 18
Sijin Li, Chemical Engineering Cornell
“Metabolic Engineering for Understanding and Harnessing Nature’s Biosynthetic Potential”
contact: Adrienne Roeder

October 25
Chris Pires, University of Missouri
“Impact of Polyploidy and Domestication on Genome and Network Evolution”
contact: Margaret Frank and Gaurav Moghe

November 1
Kyle Martin, Plant Biology Exit Seminar
“When Flowers Play Dead: The Evolution of Brood-Site Deceptive Floral Scent in the Common Pawpaw Asimina Triloba”
contact: Rob Raguso

November 8
Jesse Lasky, Penn State
“Local Adaptation to Environment in Crop Landraces”
contact: Jian Hua

November 15
Paula Cohen, Biomedical Sciences, Vet, Cornell
“The Office of the Vice Provost for Research: Life Sciences Activities and How We Can Help You”
contact: Wojtek Pawlowski

November 22
Shayla Salzman, Postdoc seminar, Cornell
“Ecology and Evolution of a Cycad-Weevil Pollination Mutualism”
contact: Chelsea Specht

November 29
No seminar
Thanksgiving Break

December 6
Maria Harrison, BTI
“Development and Function of AM Symbiosis”
contact: Bob Turgeon


Plant Breeding & Genetics (return to top)

September 3
Hai Wang, Visiting Professor, Cornell University
“Deep learning for plant genomics and crop improvement”
contact: Ed Buckler

September 10
Lucia Gutierrez, University of Wisconsin
“Improving Plant Breeding efficiency with Quantitative Genetics”
contact: GOBii – Liz Jones

September 17
Lindsay Clark, University  of  Illinois
“Novel genomic approaches for polyploids, and their application to Miscanthus breeding”
contact: GOBii – Liz Jones

September 23 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
“The Role of Agroforestry in Promoting Landscape Multifunctionality in Rural and Urban Areas”
contact: GSA

October 2 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Donald Ort, University of Illinois
“Optimizing Antennae of Crop Canopies”
contact: Bob Turgeon

October 8
Geoffrey Morris, Kansas State University
“GoHy: A Goal-directed Hypothesis-driven method for impactful crop improvement“
contact: Ed Buckler

October 15
No Seminar – Fall break

October 22
Andrew Farmer, National Center for Genome Resources
“Approaches to Factoring Out Complexities of Polyploid Genomes:  or, what’s so hard about n > 2 anyway?”
contact: GOBii – Liz Jones

October 29
Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin
TBA
contact: Synapsis

November 5

November 12
No Seminar – Tri-Society Annual Meeting

November 19
Jessica Rutkoski, University of Illinois
“Revolutionizing Global Wheat and Rice Breeding: Insights, Realities, and Untold Stories”
contact: GOBii – Liz Jones

November 26
Grad Student

December 3
Grad Student


Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology – Ithaca (return to top)

September 18
No Seminar

September 23 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
“The Role of Agroforestry in Promoting Landscape Multifunctionality in Rural and Urban Areas”
contact: GSA

October 2 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Donald Ort, University of Illinois
“Optimizing Antennae of Crop Canopies”
contact: Bob Turgeon

October 9
Tobias Doerr, Microbiology, Cornell
“Regulation of cell wall turnover in gram-negative pathogens”
contact: Teresa Pawlowska

October 16 – Whetzel Westcott Dimock Lecture
Richard O’Connell, French National Institute for Agricultural Research
‘How to subdue your host: Plant manipulation by the Anthracnose Fungi’
contact: Maria Harrison

October 23 – PPPMB exit/career recap
Stewart Gray, USDA/PPPMB
“Getting plant viruses were they need to go: Who knew it could be so complicated”
contact: Bill Fry, Michelle Heck

October 30
Angela Kruse, PPPMB Exit seminar
“A road map to control Huanglongbing: Tissue-specific, molecular analyses of the vector-pathogen interface”
contact: Michelle Heck

November 6
Matt  Tancos, USDA ARS, Fort Detrick
”Microbial-based biological control of invasive weeds: Learning from the past and looking to the future “
contact: Chris Smart

November 13
Patrick Gibney, Food Science, Cornell
“Investigating the physiological roles of trehalose metabolism in S. cerevisiae”
contact: Gillian Turgeon

November 20
Awais Khan, PPPMB, Cornell
TBA
contact: Chris Smart

November 27 – Thanksgiving break

December 6 – 12:20 pm, PS404
Maria Harrison, Boyce Thompson Institute
“Development and function of AM symbiosis”
contact: Bob Turgeon


Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology – AgriTech (return to top)

September 3
Camila Filgueiras, Entomology – Geneva
TBA

September 10
Ashok Chanda, University of Minnesota
TBA

September 17
Margery Daughtrey, PPPMB, Riverhead
TBA

September 24
Linda Hanson, USDA-ARS, Michigan
Perspectives on a career in the federal government..and tips for applications!

October 1
Stacy DeBlasio, BTI, Ithaca
TBA

October 8
David Gadoury, PPPMB – Geneva
TBA

October 15
Srdjan Acimovic, PPPMB, Hudson Valley
TBA

October 22
Klaas Van Wijk, Section of Plant Biology, SIPS, Cornell University
TBA

October 29
Zhangjun Fei, BTI
TBA

November 5
Stewart Gray, USDA-ARS, Ithaca
TBA

November 12
Gillian Turgeon, PPPMB, Ithaca
TBA

November 19
Kimberly D’Arcangelo (Graduate Student; NCSU)
TBA

November 26
Paul Esker, Pennsylvania State University
TBA

December 3
Jennifer Grant, NYS IPM
TBA

December 10
Frank Hay, PPPMB – Geneva
SLB in onions (TBA)


Soil & Crop Sciences (return to top)

August 29
Sonam Sherpa, Graduate Student, SCS
“Infrared Spectroscopy for Soil Carbon Accounting and Soil Quality Assessment”
contact: David Wolfe

September 5
Deborah Ngunengen Oluwasanya, Graduate Student, SCS
“Cassava flowering – contrasting environmental responses”
contact: Tim Setter

September 12
Rachel Bezner Kerr, Cornell University
“Agroecological approaches to sustainable food systems: Evidence from Malawi”
contact: Olena Vatamaniuk

September 19
Tatyana  Dokuchayeva, Graduate Student, SCS
“Toxic Metals in Soil and Their Effects”
contact: Murray McBride

September 23 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
“The Role of Agroforestry in Promoting Landscape Multifunctionality in Rural and Urban Areas”
contact: GSA

October 2 – SIPS Seminar, 12:20 pm 404 Plant Science
Donald Ort, University of Illinois
“Optimizing Antennae of Crop Canopies”
contact: Bob Turgeon

October 10
Janani Hariharan, Graduate Student, SCS
“Understanding Streptomyces Biogeography and Trait Evolution in the Soil Ecosystem”
Dan Buckley

October 17
Jiaming Wen, Graduate Student, SCS
“Understanding and predicting the interannual variability of global carbon cycles“
contact: Ying Sun

October 24
Terry Rose, Southern Cross University
“An alternative approach for improving phosphorus use efficiency in cropping systems“
contact: Matt Ryan

October 31
Behrooz Azimzadeh, Graduate Student, SCS
“Fate of agrochemicals at organic-metal oxides interfaces: mechanistic and kinetic insight”
contact: Carmen Enid Martinez

November 7
Fatma Rekik, Graduate Student, SCS
“Connecting Soil Health to Human Health“
contact: Harold van Es

November 14 – Tri-Society Annual Meeting

November 21
Bram Govaerts, Cornell University
“MasAgro: From Science and Farmer Innovation to Impact and Country Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals”
contact: Johannes Lehmann

November 28 – Thanksgiving break

December 5
Lewis Ziska, Columbia University
“Carbon dioxide, climate change and plant biology: The Good, The Bad, and the OMG“
contact: Tony DiTommaso

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