The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources offers
graduate education through all of its academic departments: Animal
and Food Sciences, Bioresources Engineering, Entomology and
Wildlife Ecology, Food and Resource Economics, and Plant and Soil
Sciences. Each department offers programs leading to the Master of
Science degree; additionally, programs leading to the Doctor of
Philosophy degree are offered in Animal Science, in Entomology and
Wildlife Ecology, Operations Research, and in Plant and Soil
Sciences. The College manages an MS degree program cooperatively
with Longwood Gardens in the area of Public Horticulture.
Additionally, the MA degree is offered in Agricultural and
Technology Education through the Department of Food & Resource
Economics.
The College is interested in attracting highly qualified students
with a desire to enter into research and teaching. Professors are
formally responsible for research projects in the Delaware
Agricultural Experiment Station, and students often move into a facet
of an established research project. Close association with the
departmental research program affords opportunities to broaden a
student’s perspective of the research process. Each department has
several areas of focus within the discipline.
The Department of Animal and Food Sciences has three
graduate degree offerings: the PhD in Animal Science, the MS in
Animal Science and the MS in Food Science. In Animal Science, a
student may specialize in animal physiology and nutrition; avian
microbiology, immunology and pathology; avian molecular biology,
genomics, and bioinformatics; and ruminant nutrition, microbiology,
and physiology. The MS program in Food Science emphasizes food
safety with a focus on food processing and packaging.
The Department of Bioresources Engineering offers a MS
degree in Bioresources Engineering and research opportunities
through the Operations Research program (see Food & Resource
Economics) with studies involving soil and water resources, or
environmental issues.
The Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology offers
graduate opportunities in both applied and basic research dealing
with insects, birds, mammals, and other wildlife. Areas of emphasis
include ecology, plant-insect interactions, biological control, and
conservation biology.
The Department of Food and Resource Economics offers areas
of study in quantitative economics, international agricultural trade,
economic development, resource economics, marketing and policy.
Also housed in the department is the Statistics program, which offers
an MS in Statistics, and the interdisciplinary Operations Research
program, which offers the MS and the PhD.
In Plant and Soil Sciences, areas of study include plant breeding,
tissue culture, molecular biology, pathology, plant improvement,
physiology and horticulture. In Soil Science the areas are soil
chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology and management. A
specialized MS program, the University of Delaware/Longwood
program in Public Horticulture is a 2-year Master’s degree program
requiring a thesis.
The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources houses
modern research laboratories and equipment in Worrilow Hall,
Townsend Hall, the Charles C. Allen, Jr. Laboratory, the Fischer
Greenhouse Laboratory, the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, and
other buildings located on the Delaware Experiment Station. Field
plots, a 35-acre woodlot, and animal research facilities are available
for graduate research. An excellent library and computing site are
located in the college. For more information, please see
http://ag.udel.edu.
