Johanne Cousineau was born in Montreal. In 1981, she obtained a B.Sc. from McGill University in microbiology and immunology.  In 1985, she was awarded a M.Sc. from McGill University's Department of Medicine for her thesis work on molecular cloning of a human myeloid antigen.  She then spent one year at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal setting up a new clinical molecular marker laboratory.  Upon completion of this work, she went back to McGill and obtained a Ph.D. in plant genetics in 1992.  Her main interests during her thesis work were the use of isoenzymes to uniquely identify raspberry cultivars and understanding the genetics of these enzymes.  She also established a protocol which could be used to regenerate whole raspberry plants from leaf-petiole explants grown in tissue culture.  After graduating, she worked for a short time at the Vancouver Research Station of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) on strawberry and raspberry breeding under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Daubeny.  She is presently a Research Associate with the AAFC Research Station at St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.  Her main work interests are strawberry, raspberry and apple breeding, fruit physiology, and the effects of storage on fruit. She is co-author of a new book entitled Our Apples, a description of over 250 apple cultivars grown in Eastern and Central Canada including 400 photographs of the fruits, flowers and leaves. This book is directed at apple growers and breeders and at anyone else interested in apples.