Beloved Dr. Nina Bassuk (who prefers to go by "Nina")
formally retired from Cornell at the end of August 2022.
When the world's foremost authority on street trees
and urban forestry retires after 42 years, there's signif-
icant anxiety among those of us who have benefitted
so greatly from her work, even as we are happy for our
colleague and friend. Will her vital
Urban Horticulture
Institute research continue, and if so, in what areas?
"I've been reflecting on this decision for about a
year," she says. "I will probably move to Emeritus
status, which means I'll maintain a small office on
campus and continue some selective research and
limited extension activities. I won't be teaching
anymore, and I won't have graduate students or under-
graduate advisees after my most recent graduate
student, Caroline Stokes, completes her degree."
Nina has advised nearly 60 graduate students and
as many or more undergraduates since she started
teaching and founded the Urban Horticulture
Institute (UHI) at Cornell in 1980; she still receives
on average two requests a week from stu-
dents who would like to study with her.
There is a lightness in her voice as she spoke of the
impending change. "Teaching the [two-semester]
Creating the Urban Eden class was a big deal," she
says. "I tailored my approach to the composition of
each incoming class and was always looking for ways
to engage them and keep things fresh for them and for
myself. It was important for me to convey that the skills
they were learning—in site assessment, site prepara-
tion, plant selection, etc.—would position them uniquely
among their peers without those skills. All that's to say,
I put a lot of effort into teaching. So I guess there's
lightness in my voice because there's space opening
up in my life to do other things. Still, it's bittersweet
for me, this change, because I've loved teaching."
What about UHI? As Nina describes it, it's always been a
program area, a locus for research, and an idea, rather
than a physical place. Since the School of Integrated
Plant Science (SIPS) is not refilling Nina's professorship
or UHI Director position, she will continue running UHI
in her emeritus status for the foreseeable future. >>
by Michelle Sutton
The
Nina Bassuk
Retirement
Interview
28 CityTREES
