Elizabeth "Lisa" D. Earle, has been a professor in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics since 1986. Born in Vienna, Austria, she came to the U.S. in 1939 and to Ithaca in 1965. After holding research associate positions in the Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture, she joined the Department of Plant Breeding in 1975. She became a tenured associate professor in the department in 1979, a relatively unusual appointment at the time. Earle served as department chair from 1993–2001, a period that included a major review of the unit and interactions with three CALS deans. Her area of research is genetic improvement of crop plants via cell culture and gene transfer with current emphasis on fruit and vegetable crops such as melon, broccoli, and onion.

Earle has taught lecture and lab courses in plant cell and tissue culture over 25 years, providing hundreds of students with skills in this area. In 2004, her lecture course was videotaped and provided to educational programs in South Africa and Thailand. For the past 15 years, she has co-taught a module on plant biotechnology, an area of increasing importance and controversy. As the director of graduate studies for the field of plant breeding, Earle wrote four successful proposals for the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Needs Graduate Fellowship Program and helps recruit and mentor outstanding students. Twenty-two students have earned graduate degrees in her laboratory.

Earle has published more than 170 refereed publications in major scientific journals. Some of these discussed production of genetically altered plants, such as insect-resistant broccoli or doubled haploid onion and melon, which were then tested for their agricultural and environmental benefits by collaborators. She has been an active contributor to the Cornell Vegetable Breeding Institute since its inception in 1986. Materials from her program have been distributed to dozens of seed companies throughout the world. She enjoys assisting students and colleagues with cell culture techniques and provides access to her lab facilities.

Earle has been active in CALS international programs. For the past three years, she was one of the faculty leaders of the Agriculture in Developing Nations course, which includes a January field trip to South India. She also lectured at four universities in Thailand in 2005, was a member of a small CALS delegation to a joint symposium held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and was a member of the BK21 joint program committee for interactions with Korea. In previous years, she served on review teams for agricultural programs in Chile, Peru, Indonesia, and Finland. Many international visitors have conducted research in her lab.

Not only is Earle an accomplished teacher and researcher, she has served on countless committees for the college and the university. She was a faculty-elected member of the university’s Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2006. She served on the 2005 Presidential Search Committee that brought David Skorton to Cornell and was a member of the Executive Committee of the University Faculty Senate for three terms. Earle currently serves on the General Committee of the Graduate School of the University, the University and CALS Faculty Senates, the planning committee for plant growth and functional genomics facilities in Weill Hall, and the Statler Club Board. Past activities include the CALS Life Sciences Distribution Requirement Task Force, CALS representative to the SUNY Faculty Senate, and the university faculty committee on tenure appointments. She has often been called on to provide advice to the CALS leadership.

As a CALS faculty member, Earle has represented and served the college with distinction. As a faculty-elected member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, she not only served the University selflessly, she has proven to be an effective and respected CALS representative. One fellow trustee commented: “When Lisa speaks, the board listens.” She has been a very able and articulate spokesperson for faculty concerns and issues. At the same time, she is able to see the university as a whole and to direct her questions and comments toward what is in the best interest of the university, its students, and faculty.

In 2005 Earle was featured on the new version of the National Public Radio program This I Believe. The essay she wrote and read on air was a follow-up to the one she had written as a teenager for the original radio series hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

Earle lives in Ithaca, N.Y., with her husband, Clifford J. Earle, an emeritus professor of mathematics. Her other Cornell connections include her brother, Thomas F. Deutsch ’55 BS in engineering physics, and a daughter, Susan Earle ’88 BA in English.