Graduates of Plant Biology

Graduate students in the Field of Plant Biology have an abundance of options for their careers after graduation. Plant Biology graduates are strong competitors, well-rounded scientists with solid backgrounds, multidisciplinary, collaborative and with long-term vision. Browse our featured alumni and our graduates.

Featured graduates

Marcus McFerren is a 2000 graduate of the Department of Plant Biology (L.H. Bailey Hortorium). His PhD focused on the ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of North and South American angiosperm species used as fish poisons. He is an alumnus of the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences where he received a Bachelors of Science degree in 1995. He was a visiting assistant professor at the Swarthmore College Department of Biology, where he taught courses in botany, ecological biochemistry, and medicinal plant chemistry from 2000-2002. In 2002 he joined the Cornell Medical College Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine as a teaching and research associate where he taught courses in the chemistry and pharmacology of herbal supplements and in 2006 he was awarded the MD degree. His training in internal medicine took place at the Kings County-Downstate Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn, NY. Presently, he is a resident physician at the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Dermatology where his research interests focus on the development of plant-derived agents in the treatment of dermatologic disease.

Graduation year	Name	Lab/Advisor	Positions after graduation
2007	Feinan Wu	Tanksley
2007	Sue Sherman Broyles	Nasrallah	Postdoctoral fellow at Dept of Plant Biology, Cornell University
2006	Jimmy Ytterberg	vanWijk	Postdoctoral fellow at Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA
2006	Andrea Rudella	vanWijk	Proteomics Support Specialist at Waters Global Services, Europe
2006	Lisa Giacomelli	vanWijk	Postdoctoral fellow at Dept of Molecular Genetics, Instituto de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona, Spain
2006	Jackeline Salazar	Nixon	Associate Profesor at Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), Dominican Republic
2005	Elizabeth Hermsen	Crepet	Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Kansas
2004	Gustavo Azenha	Bates	Research Scholar at Barnard College
2004	Mac Alford	Luckow	Assistant Professor at University of Southern Mississippi - Hattiesburg
2004	Damon P. Little	Nixon	Assistant Curator at New York Botanical Garden
2004	Amanda Ingram	Doyle	Assistant Professor at Wabash College, Indiana
2003	Ernest Kwok	Hanson	Visiting Assistant Professor, Claremont College
2003	Tatyana Livshultz	Luckow	Assistant Professor at University of Nebraska, Omaha
2003	Robert Nilsson**	vanWijk	Research Scientist at a Biotechnology company, Sweden
2002	Sangbom Michael Lyi	Hanson	Research Associate, USDA-ARS
2002	Antonio Alfonso	Hanson	Head of Division, Philippine Rice Research Institute
2001	Lucia Vazquez	Nixon	Assistant Professor at University of Illinois
2001	Serena Heckler	Bates	Lecturer at Durham University
2001	Christopher Hardy	Davis	Assistant Professor at Millersville University
2001	Carl Lewis	Doyle	Richard H. Simons Senior Curator at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
2000	Yan Xu	Hanson	Research Scientist, New England Biolabs
2000	Donovan Bailey, C.	Doyle	Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University
2000	Helga Ochoterena-Booth	Nixon	Associate Professor at Herbario Nacional (MEXU) Instituto de Biologia, UNAM, Mexico
2000	Marcus McFerren	Rodriguez	Lecturer and Medical Student at Weill Cornell Medical Center
2000	Mark Simmons	Davis	Associate Professor at Colorado State University
1999	Thomas Silva	Davies	Senior Lecturer at Cornell University
1999	Fabian Michelangeli	Rodriguez	Assistant Curator at New York Botanical Garden
1999	Eve Emshwiller	Doyle	Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin
1998	Diane E. Sklensky	Davies	Assistant Professor at LeMoyne University, Syracuse NY
1998	Tao Yang	Davies	Senior Researcher at Du Pont, Princeton NJ.
1998	Lawrence Kelly	Luckow	Assistant Curator and Director of Graduate Studies, New York Botanical Garden
1998	John Berry	Rodriguez	Assistant Professor at Florida International University
1997	Hazel Cropper*	Nixon	New York Botanical Garden
1996	Frances Harrington	Korf	USDA Montana
1996	Enrique Estrada	Bates	Program Director for CONACYT (Equivalent of NSF), Mexico City
1995	Catharine Conley	Hanson	Principal Investigator, NASA Ames Research Center
1995	Elizabeth Dickson	Doyle	Senior Lecturer at University of Saskatchewan
1994	Natalie McGucken	Davies	Associate Professor at Hiram College, OH.
1993	Paul Manos	Nixon	Associate Professor at Duke University
1993	Anne Bruneau	Doyle	Professor at University of Montreal
1992	Francesca Grifo	Young	Senior Scientist and Director of Scientific Integrity Program at Union of Concerned Scientists
1992	John Freudenstein	Doyle	Professor at Ohio State University
1991	Marie Connett	Hanson	Senior Intellectual Property Consultant, CAMBIA
1991	Carol C. Mapes	Davies	Professor at Kutztown University, PA
1991	Friedreich Behringer	Davies	Research Scientist at Veritech, Centerbrook CT.
1991	Daniel Potter	Doyle	Associate Professor at University of California, Davis
1990	Zhu Yu-Xian	Davies	Director, Chinese National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
1989	Otto Folkerts	Hanson	Associate Director of Technology Development, VPI Blacksburg
1988	James Weifu Lee*	Davies	Senior scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
1986	Douglas A. Hamilton	Davies	Associate Professor and Chair at Hartwick College, NY.
1984	Mary A. Smith	Davies	Associate Professor of Biology at North Carolina A&T State University.
1983	Evelyne O. Dougherty	Davies	Senior Researcher at Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
1981	Thomas J. Gianfagna	Davies	Professor at Rutgers University, NJ.
1978	William M. Proebsting	Davies	Professor at Oregon State University.
1976	Alan M. Kinnersley	Davies	Research Director (in his own company), Auxein Inc., East Lansing MI.
1976	David J. Parrish	Davies	Professor at Virginia Tech University.
1976	John I. Stiles	Davies	Head of Research at Hawaii Coffee Growing Corporation

* - Master of Science degree
** - Finished program at University of Stockholm