What does it mean to be queen of the fruit breeding universe? Well, consider that in 2024, the SnapDragon cultivar Susan Kotowski Brown ’78 (CAHNR) created was named the official apple of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, received Poland’s 2024 Innovative Produce award, and was named the year’s outstanding cultivar by the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Brown is the Herman M. Cohn Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell AgriTech, an agricultural experiment station in Geneva, New York, where she has worked since the mid-’80s. But her journey to becoming one of the nation’s premier fruit breeders is deeply rooted in the woods and meadows of East Haven, Connecticut.

“My mom had an amazing green thumb with both houseplants and her flower and rock gardens, and she taught me about native plants and their uses. My dad bred racing pigeons, so I learned about breeding and selection from him.”

When Brown was “about 10 or 12,” her interest in research was sparked when her mother took her to the annual plant science day at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s research farm in Hamden — a facility much like Cornell AgriTech. A few years later, she chose to follow her older brother, William Kotowski (who played football for UConn for two years before transferring), and older sister, Lynn Kotowski ’72 (ED), to Storrs.

Read on for more.