Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Celebrating 100 years of crop improvement
The mission of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics is the genetic improvement of crop plants for the benefit of society
through the development of novel breeding methodologies and the discovery and deployment of economically important genes as
genetic stocks, germplasm, and varieties. The Department has considerable strength across the spectrum from genomics and gene
discovery to variety development and testing. In the future, the department will expand into soybean/legume crop molecular breeding,
plant feedstocks genomics and breeding for bioenergy, and plant biofortification breeding and genomics.
Breeding efforts by crop
Crop Group
PYs
Maize
1.00
Wheat
2.00
Alfalfa
1.00
Birdsfoot trefoil
0.15
Rice
1.00
Potato
1.00
Tomato
1.75
Brassica vegetables 0.50
Long day onion
0.25
Melon
0.60
Cucumber
0.50
Squash
0.50
Pepper
0.45
Total
10.70
Releases in past 5 years
Germplasm Cultivars
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
0
0
6
538
432
977
167
2116*
2
2
5
0
19*
* partial data only
Breeding efforts by activity
Activity
Plant breeding research
Germplasm enhancement
Cultivar development
Biotechnology research and
development
Plant breeding education
Total
PYs
%
1.58
2.57
3.25
12
19
24
3.30
2.68
13.38
25
20
100
Job placement of recent
graduates
We continue to receive requests from recruiters who
are having difficulty finding graduates with field
plant-breeding training and experience.
Current (or last known) positions held by students
who earned a Ph.D. in the Field of Plant Breeding
since 1990
Faculty positions
Total (all in plant-related departments)
Research/management positions
Management
Research scientists
Plant-related industry programs
Plant-related university, USDA,
national or international programs
Non-plant research programs
Plant breeders at private companies
Total
Postdoctoral positions
23
6
Plant breeding course
offerings
Core Plant Breeding Curriculum
• Advanced Plant Genetics
• Concepts and Techniques in Plant
Molecular Biology
• Crop Evolution, Domestication, and Diversity
• Genetic Modification of Crop Plants
• Molecular Breeding
• Methods of Plant Breeding Lab
• Patents, Plants, and Profits: Intellectual
Property Management for Scientists and
Entrepreneurs
• Perspectives in Plant Breeding Strategies
• Plant Breeding Seminar
• Plant Genome Organization
• Statistical Methods I
Other Recommended Offerings
• Breeding for Pest Resistance
• Computational Molecular Biology
• Introduction to Statistical Genomics and
Bioinformatics
• Numerical Methods in Computational
Molecular Biology
• Plant Biotechnology
• Plant Cell and Tissue Culture
• Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory
• Quantitative Genetics in Plant Breeding
• Statistical Genomics
• Statistical Methods II
Recent graduates and
current graduate student
enrollment
Graduate field of plant breeding: enrollment and
degrees awarded: 2000-2006
Year
Students Degrees awarded
enrolled
M.S. Ph.D.
Total
1999-2000
36
4
5
9
2000-2001
33
1
5
6
25
1
8
53
2001-2002
36
0
5
5
2002-2003
42
1
7
8
2003-2004
34
1
6
7
13
2004-2005
36
7
7
2005-2006
32
5
7
2006-2007
31
2*
2
13
Other
Biotechnology extension
Consulting/administration
Total
1
2
3
Deceased
2
No information
4
* to date
2
Celebrate Cornell’s
Department of Plant
Breeding and Genetics’
100 years of crop
improvement at a special
symposium.
The 2007 Cornell Plant
Breeding Centennial
Symposium
will be held July 26-28 in
Ithaca, New York.
For more information visit
http://plbrgen.cals.cornell.edu