Nelson J. Shaulis papers

Professor of Viticulture, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva.

Nelson Shaulis graduated with a B.S. in horticulture and an M.S. in agronomy from Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1941. He served as a soil conservationist with the USDA Soil Conservation Service from 1938 to 1944, while he was also an instructor and assistant professor of pomology at Penn State. In 1944, he was appointed assistant professor of pomology at Cornell, and became professor of pomology and viticulture from 1948 to 1967. He retired as professor of viticulture in 1978. His major contributions to the grape industry included a training system for grapes called the Geneva Double Curtain (GDC), which he initiated at the Experiment Station in 1960 and with growers in 1964. He also helped to develop the mechanical grape harvester. Shaulis was named a fellow of the American Society of Horticultural Science in 1972 and in 1997 was the recipient of the Merit Award given by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV), the highest award of the society. He also received Merit Awards from the Society of Wine Educators, the American Wine Society, the New York State Wine and Grape Foundation, and the National Grape Cooperative.