2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in

Corvallis, Oregon. She received her BS from the American University of Beirut (1984),

and her MS (1989) and PhD (1994) at Oregon State University. Since starting at the

NCGR in 2002, her primary research focus has been molecular marker development and

application to germplasm management and diversity evaluation. Dr. Bassil developed the

first microsatellite markers in blueberry and hazelnut. Her fingerprinting sets for these

crops are now used worldwide for identity confirmation. Her work in blueberry was

recognized with a USDA Technology Transfer award (2014). In addition to this work,

she developed and applied molecular tools for germplasm characterization in strawberry,

red and black raspberry, blackberry, pear, medlar, quince, hops, and mint. Her work on

marker development and characterization resulted in the first tetraploid blueberry map. In

RosBREED, a Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), she led the team in the

development of the first high throughput genotyping array in an octoploid organism, the

domesticated strawberry, and the first arrays in cherry, peach and apple. Her use of

almost complete chloroplast sequences for phylogenetic analysis in Fragaria determined

the young age of this genus, and confirmed that F. vesca subsp. bracteata from

Northwestern North America was the maternal donor to the octoploid clade that includes

the domesticated strawberry. In addition to contributing the annotated chloroplast

genome to the assembly of the first diploid strawberry genome sequence, Dr. Bassil led

the genomic team of the black raspberry SCRI-funded project that resulted in the first

chromosome-scale genome sequence in Rubus. In addition to supervising three

postdoctoral fellows, she has mentored 9 PhD and 12 M.S. students as a major advisor or

a graduate committee member in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State

University. She also hosted international scientists from many countries including The

Netherlands, Tunisia, Brazil, South Korea, China, Turkey, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan. Dr.

Bassil received more than $ 2.19 million in grants and has written more than 140

publications (123 peer-reviewed articles). The horticultural community has benefited

greatly from her dedicated and tireless efforts for our scientific societies (ASHS: Chair

and Secretary, 4 working groups; ISHS: Scientific Committee 4 symposia, convener for

an additional one; American Pomological Society: Advisory committee, Executive

committee, and Vice President). Dr. Bassil is a shining star and esteemed scientist within

our horticultural community.