Breeding & Local Phenotyping

Fred Gouker is a USDA-ARS Research Geneticist with the Grape Genetics Research Unit in Geneva, NY. He is focused on continuous grape germplasm improvement through targeted trait introgression, trait discovery research, and development of effective and efficient integration methodology and optimization for greater breeding efficiency.

I have been a technician with Bruce Reisch in the grape breeding and genetics lab at Cornell AgriTech since 2018 and have moved from a temporary hire to lead tech during that time. I spend most of my time in our research vineyards, aiding in field trials and vineyard care that yield new, disease-resistant wine and table grapes.

Dustin Wilkerson is a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Biotechnology at Cornell University with Qi Sun’s group. He has a B.S. in plant science from the University of Missouri - Columbia, an M.S. in plant breeding from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in plant breeding from Cornell University. As part of VitisGen3, he works on trait mapping, candidate gene analysis, and the marker-assisted selection pipeline.

Dr. Summaira Riaz is current Lead Research Geneticist in the Crop Diseases, Pests, and Genetics
Research Unit (CDPGRU) at the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center (SJVASC) in Parlier,
California. Dr. Riaz completed her PhD from the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University
of California, Davis. She has worked with both cultivated and wild grapes. She led the research to
identify resistant loci for Pierce’s disease and grape powdery mildew in native American and Chinese

Chin-Feng maintains the vineyard of the Norton x Cabernet Sauvignon and Jaeger 70/Munson x Vignoles populations, manages pests and diseases of the vineyards, collects samples for further genotyping and phenotyping at Cornell, and participates in relevant extension and outreach efforts.

Bruce specializes in the development of new wine and table grape varieties, as well as new grape breeding techniques. His grape breeding program continues to emphasize wine variety development with a strong emphasis on combining wine quality with disease resistance and cold tolerance. He is the previous co-director for the VitisGen2 project, where he led the breeding and local phenotyping team.