May 1, 2014

Retirements, funding cuts impact Cornell programs

Key personnel have left, or soon will leave, Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), and with them goes decades of experience that have benefited New York state’s fruit industry.

The changes have hit Cornell’s Hudson Valley Laboratory in Highland, N.Y., especially hard. David Rosenberger, a plant pathologist and former superintendent of the lab, retired Feb. 14. Horticulturist Stephen Hoying will retire at the end of June. Mike Fargione, the lab’s fruit Extension specialist, resigned last fall to take a job in wildlife management at the Institute for Ecosystem Studies. Entomologist Peter Jentsch became superintendent of the lab in November, when Rosenberger stepped down after 23 years at the helm in anticipation of his retirement.

Meanwhile, the university has announced that it will cut the Hudson Valley Laboratory’s funding by nearly 50 percent beginning in July. To make up for that shortfall, Cornell personnel have been working with growers to create a more industry-driven funding model for the laboratory, which has conducted applied research for the state’s fruit and vegetable industries for decades, according to Rosenberger.

Helping to guide the lab through this period of transition is one of the reasons Rosenberger, 66, is still spending about 20 hours a week there, even though he’s officially retired. He still has some projects he wants to complete as well, so he’ll probably stick around through the next growing season at least.

“I retired mainly because I wanted more freedom to fit in some other things, and because I was very tired of chasing grants to keep my programs funded,” Rosenberger said. “I have always liked (and still do) my work environment and the challenges of solving applied problems in fruit disease control. I feel very, very blessed to have been given the privilege of spending my entire career in a job that I loved, working for a major research university with an amazing group of colleagues (both from inside Cornell and from other institutions), and with the vibrant and exciting New York tree fruit industry.”

Rosenberger has been an integral part of the New York apple industry for 37 years, and is recognized throughout the United States as a leading plant pathologist. As a member of the U.S. Apple Association’s Tree-Fruit Technical Advisory Council, Rosenberger helped identify the threats that pests and diseases on imported apples might pose to the domestic apple industry, said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association.

Rosenberger grew up on a dairy farm near Quakertown, Pa., and spent his summers working at fruit, vegetable and greenhouse operations. He graduated from Goshen College in Goshen, Ind., in 1969. He spent two years doing rural development work in Algeria before attending Michigan State University, where he completed his Ph.D. in plant pathology. He joined Cornell as a plant pathologist in 1977, and spent the rest of his career at the Hudson Valley lab investigating the biology and control of tree fruit diseases.

Other changes

The changes at Cornell go beyond the Hudson Valley lab. Helene Dillard, former director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, left New York for the University of California in January, where she became dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Perhaps even more important to fruit growers, Alan Lakso will retire soon.

Lakso, a professor and fruit crop physiologist, had planned to retire from CALS Feb. 1, but was asked to help teach a viticulture course this spring, so he pushed his retirement up to June 1. Even after he steps down, however, he’ll still be active as an emeritus faculty member, helping growers refine their crop models and continuing to develop a microtensiometer sensor for monitoring water stress, he said.

Lakso, 66, completed his Ph.D. in plant physiology at the UC Davis Viticulture and Entomology Department in 1973, where he studied temperature effects on wine grapes. That same year, he joined Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. His responsibilities there included apples and grapes. Much of his research has emphasized carbohydrate and water physiology and how they integrate with environmental factors and cultural practices – and how all of that affects fruit productivity and quality.

Lakso has studied carbohydrate production from sunlight, the competition for those carbohydrates within the tree, how the weather affects them and how cultural practices could control them. His research has led to an improved understanding of the competition for carbohydrates between fruits and shoots, and how to balance those needs. These insights eventually led to an apple carbohydrate model, available to growers online, that helps estimate trees’ likely response to chemical thinners.

Lakso will be missed by the New York fruit industry, Allen said, but he isn’t going away completely.

“While we may not be seeing Dr. Lakso each February at the fruit schools on a regular basis, knowing that he is still available and willing to assist is reassuring to our industry,” Allen said.

– Matt Milkovich