Courtesy Associate Professor

Department of Horticultural Sciences
Cornell University
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station
Geneva, NY 14456

E-Mail: jcs21@cornell.edu

Minnesota-St. Paul BS 1976 Horticulture
Wisconsin-Madison MS 1978 Plant Breeding/Plant Genetics
Wisconsin-Madison PhD 1980 Plant Breeding/Plant Genetics

Program Overview

My central research objectives have involved:

• Developing new genetic transformation technologies
• Developing new approaches to genetically engineer disease and insect resistance in horticultural plants
• Conventional breeding of strawberries and raspberries

My most significant accomplishments were:

• Primary inventor of the biolistic (gene gun) process
• Co-inventor of the Pathogen-derived Resistance (PDR) process
• Co-inventor of the Genetic Vaccination process
• Primary inventor of numerous conventionally-bred fruit varieties.
• Gene gun process used to engineer most of the world's trangenic crops.

I am presently looking at the theoretical limits of mutation/selection.

Recent and Current Projects

Academic Positions Held

• 1998- present Courtesy Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
• 1994-1998 Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Cornell University.
• 1986-1994 Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Cornell University. Responsibilities - 100% research.
• 1980-1986 Assistant Professor (as above).

Academic Honors

• Adjunct Assoc. Prof. of Botany - Duke University, Durham, NC.
• Distinguished Inventor Award (W. Greatbatch, J. Sanford) 1995, Gene therapy for retroviruses. Central New York Patent Law
• Association. Distinguished Inventor Award (J. Sanford, E. Wolf, N. Allen) 1990, Central New York Patent Law Association.
• Over 75 publications and over 25 patents.