About

Justine Vanden Heuvel is a professor involved in biological and environmental engineering research at Cornell CALS. Her work includes research on synthetic biology aimed at improving therapeutics for Type 1 diabetes, exemplified by her collaboration with student Gaby Markle ’26 who is exploring potential treatments for the disease. Her research contributes to advancing medical and biological sciences through innovative approaches in synthetic biology, with a focus on developing new therapeutic strategies.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Geography
• Ecology
• Remote sensing
• Horticulture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Soil science
• Optics
• Botany
• Computer vision
• Agronomy
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Barriers and opportunities to increase soil organic carbon in vineyards: A case study of extension personnel in France and in the United States

  OENO One · 2025-05-21 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) in vineyards enhances soil health with associated benefits for climate change resilience and mitigation. However, adoption of SOC-building management practices remains low and hindered by multifaceted barriers. Extension specialists play a crucial role in overcoming adoption challenges by providing tailored advice and training opportunities to growers. This study used semi-structured interviews with extension specialists in warm and cool regions of France and USA to explore context-specific barriers and opportunities for adoption of SOC-building practices. The Multi-Level Perspective framework was implemented to identify SOC-building practices and factors influencing their adoption from niche to mainstream. The practices to increase SOC identified included cover crops, organic fertilisation, and reduced tillage, with regional variations in implementation across climates. Barriers to the adoption of SOC-building practices were centred around costs of implementation, limited knowledge of the long-term impacts of the practices and the complexity of local adaptations of practices to be effective in specific vineyard conditions (e.g., slope, planting density, water availability). Incentives for adoption could include facilitations between grape growers and livestock farmers, targeted research, improved extension programs, and government support through subsidies or restructuring of the supply and value chain both in France and in the USA. A significant gap in extension capacity was identified for cover crop implementation in the USA's warm and cool areas. Research gaps were identified around pruning residue management, the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and the integration of grazing animals into winegrape vineyards more in the USA than in France. Expanding applied research and cost-benefit analysis and the long-term impact of these practices is crucial for improving adoption rates of SOC-building practices in the context of climate change.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early Detection of Botrytis Cinerea Growth via GHz Ultrasonic Imaging of Agar Depletion

  2025-09-15

  article

  Botrytis Cinerea is a destructive fungal pathogen responsible for significant agricultural losses worldwide. In this paper, we demonstrate a GHz ultrasonic imaging method to detect early fungal growth by monitoring nutrient agar depletion. A sessile droplet drying model was developed to establish baseline evaporation dynamics, which were validated experimentally. Using a custom-built portable 1.85 GHz ultrasonic imager provided by Geegah Inc., we correlated return voltage signals with agar thickness, allowing quantification of Botrytis-induced agar depletion. Control droplets exhibited predictable drying and stabilization, while inoculated samples displayed accelerated agar reduction and demonstratable thickness variation in comparison to control experiments. These results suggest that GHz ultrasonic imaging offers potential for a rapid, portable, easy to use platform for on-site pathogen detection, enabling earlier intervention compared to traditional methods.

  PublisherDOI

• Box sampling: a new spatial sampling method for grapevine macronutrients using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images

  Precision Agriculture · 2025-02-17 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The ability to reduce sampling distance or time is crucial for growers to monitor vineyard nutrients more frequently. Extension specialists often recommend collecting large random samples, but this is frequently overlooked, leading to inaccurate fertilizer recommendations. A novel, one-location square grid area-based sampling method called “box” sampling was developed to capture the overall nutrient distribution within a block, providing guidance for growers on sample collection in vineyards for nutrient monitoring. Box sampling was compared with random and stratified sampling methods at both bloom and veraison for grapevine foliar nitrogen (N%), phosphorus (P%), potassium (K%), magnesium (Mg%), and calcium (Ca%). Box and stratified sampling locations were determined based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images. SAR and NDVI images were stratified into three variability zones using the k-means + + algorithm. Representative pixels from each zone were sampled using the stratified method, while the junction of these variability zones (30mx30m sampling window) was sampled using the new box method. In 2021 and 2022, these methods were compared against nutrient population parameters in two vineyard blocks. Both methods showed marginal differences in mean, median, and standard deviation, with box sampling consistently capturing a broader range of variations. This was evidenced by the Bhattacharya coefficient, which indicates the overlap between two probability distributions (with values closer to 1 for greater overlap). The coefficient was > 0.80 for N%, P%, and Mg%, and > 0.60 for K% and Ca% at both bloom and veraison. For 14 different commercial vineyards in 2022 and 2023, box sampling accurately captured random nutrient variability for N%, P% and Mg% at both bloom and veraison. However, for K% (at veraison) and Ca% box sampling performed poorly due to high spatial variability. Box sampling reduced the sampling distance and time by 75% compared to random sampling.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Toward Estimating the Crop Coefficient of Vineyards Using a Smartphone Camera

  American Journal of Enology and Viticulture · 2025-08-01

  articleOpen access

  <h3>Abstract</h3> <h3>Background and goals</h3> Measuring evapotranspiration (ET_c) in vineyards is important to optimize vineyard irrigation and water management practices. Previous work demonstrated a strong correlation between the amount of shaded area under the vine at high noon and crop coefficient. This parameter can be measured with a photovoltaic sensor (Paso Panel) or by hand using grid paper. We aimed to develop a low-cost and easy-to-use smartphone-based alternative to measure shaded area under a vine. <h3>Methods and key findings</h3> Videos of the ground under a row of vines were recorded with a smartphone camera on a sunny day in the presence of resident vegetation which consisted of grasses and weeds. A novel computer vision-based algorithm using a segmentation machine learning model and structure-from-motion was developed to estimate the amount of shaded area present. Measurements were collected using a Paso Panel at the same time for comparison. Other Paso Panel measurements were collected to measure the relationship between electrical current and shaded area. Linear regression of this CV-based method to Paso Panel readings yields R² = 0.68. <h3>Conclusions and significance</h3> A new model for relating Paso Panel current readings to shaded area was derived empirically. Adoption of the CV-based crop coefficient estimation method could improve spatial resolution of ET_c estimates, potentially aiding adoption of variable rate irrigation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bringing solar to agriculture: An interdisciplinary design and analysis of a Concord grape agrivoltaic system

  Applied Energy · 2025-05-09 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Challenges and opportunities for increasing organic carbon in vineyard soils: perspectives of extension specialists

  2024-11-18

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Context description and research question: an increasing number of farmers are considering the impact of conservation practices on soil health to guide sustainable management of vineyards. Understanding impacts of soil management on soil organic carbon (SOC) is one lever for adoption of agroecological practice with potential to help maintain or improve soil health while building SOC stocks to mitigate climate change (Amelung et al., 2020).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inexpensive, Automated Pruning Weight Estimation in Vineyards

  2024-05-13 · 1 citations

  article

  Pruning weight is indicative of a vine’s ability to produce a crop the following year, informing vineyard management. Current methods for estimating pruning weight are costly, laborious, and/or require specialized know-how and equipment. In this paper we demonstrate an affordable, simple, computer vision-based method to measure pruning weight using a smartphone camera and structured light which produces results better than state-of-the-art techniques for vertical shoot position (VSP) vines and demonstrate initial steps towards estimating pruning weight in high cordon procumbent (HC) vines such as Concord. The simplicity and affordability of this technique lends its self to deployment by farmers today or on future viticulture robotics platforms. We achieved an R2=.80 for VSP vines (better than state-of-the-art computer vision-based methods) and R2=.29 for HC vines (not previously attempted with computer vision-based methods).

  PublisherDOI

• Box sampling: a new spatial sampling method for grapevine macronutrients using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images

  Research Square · 2024-11-12

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Opportunities and challenges in the adoption of new grape varieties by producers: A case study from the Northeastern United

  2024-11-18 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Grape breeding for resistance to fungal diseases is today very dynamic throughout the world notably in France. New varieties are obtained by hybridization between susceptible varieties of the vitis vinifera species and resistant genotypes, with breeding programs generally lasting between 15 and 25 years and resulting in the registration of a few new varieties. Though these varieties can provide several benefits and can be planted by winegrowers, they are not always systematically adopted.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Leviers et freins à l’adoption des nouvelles variétés de vigne par les producteurs : un cas d’étude sur un territoire pilote du Nord-Est des États-Unis

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2024-01-01

  articleSenior author

  National audience

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Gavin L. Sacks

  Cornell University

  28 shared

• James M. Meyers

  26 shared

• Wesley R. Autio

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  25 shared

• Donglin Zhang

  University of Georgia

  24 shared

• Catherine Neto

  University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

  18 shared

• Michelle R. Salvas

  Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

  16 shared

• Christine A. Dao

  University of Rhode Island

  16 shared

• Timothy E. Martinson

  Iowa State University

  15 shared