SIPS is excited to welcome its newest assistant professor, Dr. Maddy Oravec. Maddy officially started July 1 and will be filling the Grapevine Breeding, Genetics and Genomics faculty position at Cornell AgriTech for which she interviewed in May 2023. Maddy’s office is located in 204 Hedrick Hall and her email is mwo23@cornell.edu.

An upstate New York native, Maddy earned a BS in Plant Sciences from Cornell where she also played on the varsity polo team. Following an MS at Purdue and PhD in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, she has conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin working on circadian biology and root vegetable breeding.

Maddy is looking forward to continuing the long and storied history of grape breeding at Cornell AgriTech, with a research program focused on genetic understanding and improvement of grapes, emphasizing on fruit quality, environmental resilience, and biotic resistance.