What do we do?
The Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA) promotes the understanding, management, and design of agricultural, urban and natural ecosystems and their interfaces with air, water, soil and living organisms.
Our actions contribute to a sustainable future and enhanced environmental quality through conservation and management of plant and other natural resources, and the planning, design and management of landscapes. Through education, research, and extension, we desire to increase both the knowledge base and human capital necessary to solve local and global issues around sustainability and the improvement of our environment.
We aspire to build the human capital and knowledge base needed to meet these goals through excellence in research, education, teaching, extension, outreach and service programs.
Our department is dedicated to offering its students research and extension training, distance education, and community service opportunities in the areas of agronomy, conservation biology, ecology, ecosystems management, environmental horticulture, landscape architecture, and plant biology.
The Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture is committed to using fundamental discovery to solve challenging local and global problems.
The department has approximately 23 internationally renown faculty researchers, many with split appointments among teaching, research, and extension. Basic, interdisciplinary, and translational research of our faculty drive the undergraduate and graduate education programs and contribute to the agricultural practices and knowledge base statewide and globally. Research areas include plant biology (plant physiology and development, plant pathology and microbiology, plant ecology / conservation biology); plant genomics (small grains and wheat); horticulture; food security; food safety; urban forestry and green infrastructure management; agricultural production systems, and landscape architecture research (turf management, urban agriculture, therapeutic landscapes and mental and behavioral health).
