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Kass, Lee B.

Adjunct Professor

Kass taught full time at Elmira College (1982-2000), conducted research with students as an Adjunct Professor at the L.H. Bailey Hortorium (BH), (1990-2014) and Plant Breeding & Genetics Section, Cornell University (2014-Present). She established the Elmira College Herbarium (ECH, 1984), founded on the historical plant collections of T. F. Lucy. At BH she completed the first edition of Field Guide to the Common Plants of San Salvador Island (1991), subsequently revised & updated (2005, 2009, 2nd printing revised 2019). While a Fulbright Scholar & Visiting Professor at the College of the Bahamas (1996), she facilitated the establishment of the Bahamas National Herbarium (BNH), of which she is currently an associate staff member. She has been Visiting Professor at the herbaria of Michigan State University, Cornell University and West Virginia University (WVU).

She is Adjunct Professor, at Cornell University, and WVU-Morgantown, where she focuses her efforts on publishing scientific papers and recently completed a biography of Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock (Kass 2024). She is co-author of Cornell’s Plant Breeding and Genetics Centennial History (Murphy & Kass, 2007, 2011). She consults on and investigates the biodiversity & reproductive biology of Bahamian Plants (Kass et al. 2018), and is a resource person for investigators on the Bahama Flora and for historians working in the field of botany and genetics. She guided Elmira College Honors and Research students in updating names for the T. F. Lucy Herbarium collection, currently housed at BH (Graver et al. 2005) and has recently completed curating Lucy’s specimens for the Buffalo Museum of Science (Tilden et al. 2008, Kelloff & Kass 2018). At WVU, she has taught graduate and undergraduate classes and conducts research on the history of genetics and plant biology (Kass 2019, Kass et al. 2019, Dirig et al. 2021; Kass & Eshbaugh 2024).

Publications

  1. Kass, L.B. 2024. From Chromosomes to Mobile Genetic Elements: The Life and Work of Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock. CRC Press/ Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group, (www.routledge.com/9781032365329). 

  2. Kass, L.B., T.K. Snyder, and K.A. Snyder. 2018. Updated List of Endemic Seed Plant Species found on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas; with a Perspective on Historical and Current Significance. Caribbean Naturalist. Special Issue No 2, 2018: 48-75. 

  3. Kass, L.B. 2019/2009. An Illustrated Guide to Common Plants of San Salvador Island, Bahamas, 3rd edition, A. J. Kowalski, illustrator. Gerace Research Centre, San Salvador, Bahamas. 183 pp. (2nd printing with revisions issued Sept. 2019). 

  4. Kass, L.B., E.H. Coe, M.N. Cook, M.E. Smith, J.L. Singer (Eds.). 2019. Founding of the Maize Genetics Cooperation News Letter at Cornell University: A 90th Anniversary Tribute. (Foreword by E.S. Buckler) [e-book] Internet-First University Press, Ithaca, New York, https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/66550 

  5. Kelloff, Carol L., Lee B. Kass. 2018. Databasing and georeferencing historical collections to discover potential sites for rare and endangered plants of New York, U.S.A., Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas [ JBRIT, formerly Sida]. Vol. 12(1) (June/July): 323-368.  

  6. Kass, L. B. (Ed.). 2013ff. Perspectives on Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock’s publications (1926-1984): A Companion Volume. The Internet-First University Press. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/34897 [On-line 30 Dec. 2013; updates 2014, 2016] 

  7. Murphy, R. P. & L. B. Kass. 2011 (27 June). Evolution of Plant Breeding at Cornell University: A Centennial History, 1907-2006. Rev. ed. x, 178p., Appendices, Photo Section. The Internet-First University Press, Ithaca, NY. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/23087  

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