TREE Fund researcher Bassuk receives Alex L. Shigo Award

TREE Fund grant recipient, Dr. Nina Bassuk, was honored at the 2015 ISA Annual International Conference with the Alex L. Shigo Award for Excellence in Arboricultural Education, one of ISA’s Awards of Distinction. This award recognizes the important role that education plays in enhancing the quality and professionalism of the arboriculture industry through sustained excellence in arboricultural education.

Dr. Bassuk, a native New Yorker, completed her Ph.D. in Horticulture at the University of London. In 1980, she became professor and program leader for the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell University where she has shaped the program as knowledge and practice has evolved. Dr. Bassuk engages her students and instills in them a passion for learning about all elements of a sustainable landscape. They develop the skills of good landscape stewards by putting theory into practice as they create, install, and maintain new landscapes.

Dr. Bassuk helped organize the Student Weekend Arborist Team, giving students experience in performing public tree inventories for small communities that have no budget for tree maintenance. The outcome has been positive for both the students and 50 communities to date.

She co-authored Trees in the Urban Landscape and has written more than 100 papers regarding plant growth in the urban environment. Dr. Bassuk has also contributed to the knowledge base through her research in improving technologies for plant growth and development in the urban landscape.

Dr. Bassuk has received several grants from the TREE Fund on topics ranging from improving oak transplant success to using ground penetrating radar to preserve tree roots. On September 23, she will be the featured speaker on the TREE Fund’s next webinar discussing “Strategies for Successful Urban Tree Growth in Wet and Dry Sites.”