The Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at Ithaca is one of the oldest (established in 1907) plant pathology departments in the United States. The Department strives to provide a progressive, balanced program of fundamental and applied research, teaching, training for service to international agriculture, and assistance to growers and the general public through outreach programs. The Department is based on the second, third and fourth floors of the Plant Science Building, with several research programs (and faculty offices) in adjacent Bradfield Hall and in the nearby Dimock and Virology/Nematology Laboratories. Faculty members and several professors emeriti have offices in the Plant Science Building. Most graduate students also are assigned desk space in that building.
Photo by D. Dailey O'Brien.
Plant Science greenhouses.
Instructional facilities include teaching laboratories, the H.H. Whetzel Seminar Room, and other rooms equipped with audiovisual equipment. The Virology-Nematology Laboratory, the Federal Golden Nematode Research Laboratory, and the A.W. Dimock Controlled Environment Laboratory are departmental resources that are a short walk away. Many controlled environment chambers are available for studies on effects of environmental variables on plant diseases. The Department is equipped with greenhouse facilities, and land for field plots is available. Thousands of acres of woodlands, bogs and other natural areas, located within a few minutes of campus, serve as excellent mycological collecting grounds. Our staffed photographic laboratory offers cutting edge photographic services. Researchers also benefit from the many other advanced Cornell facilities and resources on campus.
The Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP) in Ithaca is the fourth largest fungal herbarium in North America. It includes over 300,000 specimens of diseased plants and fungi and houses an extensive image collection documenting the last century of plant pathology, mycology, and agricultural practice. The herbarium moved to a new facility in 2007.
The Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center is a 68-acre facility featuring state-of-the-art greenhouses, nursery and container production area, and a plant tissue culture facility. It serves the horticultural industries of Long Island. The Cornell Uihlein Farm is a production facility located in Lake Placid, New York and produces certified pathogen-free potato seed stocks for northern growers.
Albert R. Mann Library, one of the Cornell University Library system's nineteen unit libraries, supports instruction, research, and extension programs and is located next to the Plant Science building. The collection covers a wide range of cross-cutting basic and applied sciences pertinent to studies in plant pathology and allied disciplines.
The professorial staff at Ithaca is assisted by approximately 80+ full-time employees; these include postdoctoral associates, laboratory technicians, an administrative staff, greenhouse and field assistants, a photographer, and herbarium curator. The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research is located on the Ithaca campus. Although the Institute is an independent nonprofit corporation, it has close ties with Cornell University and the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology. Members of its staff may become members of the graduate fields and participate in graduate education.