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Note: This is the 2012–2013 edition of the eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or click here to jump to the newest eCalendar.
Our understanding of biological systems has advanced exponentially during the 20th century, and technological developments now allow us to pose questions that simply could not be asked a few decades ago. We also live at a time of great challenges: the human population is now close to 7 billion and continues to rise at an alarming rate, the climate is changing, worldwide energy availability is going down, quality freshwater is getting scarce, biodiversity is disappearing, and a number of wild habitats are threatened by human activities.
Plant scientists have a crucial role to play in solving several of these problems. How can we keep feeding the growing population with quality food, while the resources to do so are scarcer than ever? How will plants react to a changing climate? How can we design effective conservation strategies to preserve biodiversity? The challenge of using the knowledge accumulated in the field of biology to answer these questions falls in great part to plant scientists.
The Department of Plant Science contributes to several undergraduate programs that will train tomorrow's agrologists, ecologists, botanists, and biotechnologists. These include specializations in Ecological Agriculture, Plant Biology, Plant Production, and also the Environmetrics and Food Production and Environment Domains of the Æ»¹ûÒùÔº School of the Environment. See related program information under Bachelor of Science (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) – B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.).