Science (32 hours)
The science component is comprised of coursework in the major: 5 hours in core courses and 27 hours in electives.
All students complete:
ACES 409 Bioenergy Systems (3 hours)
ACES 501 Advanced Bioenergy Topics (2 hours)
Electives are selected from one or more of four specialty areas, based on individual career interests and priorities and in consultation with the faculty advisor:
- plants, soils, and feedstocks
- production, processing and use
- environment, economics and policy & law
- tools and methods
Of the 27 hours of electives, at least 12 hours must be in 500-level courses. Electives are selected in consultation with the program’s director.
Course options for each specialty area are listed below.
Sample Program of Study
(specific courses depend on the student's professional objectives)
Year 1: Fall
Science Courses
ACES 409/509 - Bioenergy Systems
CHBE 471 - Biochemical Engineering
CPSC 499 - Bioenergy Crops
Business Modules (3 to 8 weeks each)
LER 512 - People, Technology & Work
BADM 595 - Marketing for Professional Scientists
BADM 596 - Entrepreneurship for Professional Scientists
PSM 501 - Industry Seminar I (all semester)
Year 1: Spring
Science Courses
ABE 498 - Processing of Biomass
ACE 592 - Law of Renewable Energy
CHBE 594 - Bioenergy and Biofuels Technology
ACES 501 - Bioenergy Seminar Series
Business Modules (3 to 8 weeks each)
BADM 598 - Managing Technology & Innovation
BADM 597 - Global Strategy
LER 524 - Human Resource Management for Scientists & Engineers
PSM 502 - Industry Seminar II (all semester)
Summer Internship
Year 2: Fall
Science Courses
ABE 498 - Sustainable Biosystems Engineering
ABE 598 - Automotive Bioenergy
ACE 501 - Risk and Info: Theory and Application
Business Modules (3 weeks each)
ACCY 500 - Accounting Measurement, Reporting & Control
FIN 500 - Introduction to Finance
PSM 503 - Industry Seminar III (all semester)
December Graduation
Course Options by Specialty Area
Plant, Soils & Feedstocks
CPSC 414 - Forage Crops and Grassland Ecology
CPSC 416 - Perennial Grass Ecosystems
CPSC 418 - Crop Growth and Management
CPSC 431 - Plants and Global Change
CPSC 437 - Principles of Agroecology
CPSC 438 - Soil Nutrient Cycling
CPSC 453 - Principles of Plant Breeding
CPSC 484 - Plant Physiology
CPSC 488 - Soil Fertility and Fertilizers
CPSC 489 - Photosynthesis
CPSC 499 - Seminar: Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics
CPSC 499 - Seminar: Soil and Water Conservation
CPSC 518 - Crop Growth and Development
CPSC 538 - Environmental Plant Physiology
CPSC 558 - Quantitative Plant Breeding
CPSC 566 - Plant Gene Regulation
CPSC/PLPA 407 - Diseases of Field Crops
NRES 416 - Forest Biology
NRES 475 - Soil Microbiology
NRES 487 - Soil Chemistry
NRES 488 - Soil Fertility and Fertilizers
NRES 572 - Chemistry of Soil Fertility
NRES 586 - Soil Organic Matter
PLPA 509 - Molecular Biol. of Microbe-Plant Interactions
Production, Processing and Use
ABE 436 - Renewable Energy Systems
ABE 488 - Bioprocessing Grains for Fuels
ABE 489 - Process Design for Corn Milling
FSHN 460 - Food Processing Engineering
FSHN 460/461/462 - Food Processing I+II, Engineering
FSHN 471 - Food & Industrial Microbiology
MSE 498 - Material Science and Engineering for Sustainability
NPRE 498 - Fuel Cell Science and Technology
TSM 484 - Grain Bioprocessing Coproducts
Environment, Economics and Policy & Law
ABE 456 - Land and Water Resources Engineering
ACE 403 - Agricultural Law
ACE 406 - Environmental Law
ACE 411 - Environment and Development
ACE 451 - Agriculture in International Development
ACE 455 - International Trade in Food and Agriculture
ACE 492 - Topics in Agribusiness Decision Making
ACE 510 - Advanced Natural Resource Economics
ACE 542 - Advanced Agricultural Finance
ACE 592 - Special Topics: Regional and Rural Development Policy
ACE 592 - Special Topics: Spatial Econometrics
ATMS 421 - Earth Systems Modeling
CEE 434 - Environmental Systems, I
CEE 442 - Environmental Engineering Principles, Physical
CEE 444 - Environmental Engineering Principles, Biological
CEE 449 - Environmental Engineering Lab
CEE 491 - Decision and Risk Analysis
CEE 535 - Environmental Systems, II
CPSC 429 - Environment and Sustainable Development
CPSC 449 - Spatial Ecosystem Modeling
CPSC/HORT 465 - Ethics in Biotechnology
ECON 515 - Advanced Natural Resource Economics
GEOG 466 - Environmental Policy
GEOG 570 - Advanced Spatial Analysis
GEOL 497 - The Challenge of A Sustainable Earth System
HORT 441 - Greenhouse Management and Crop Production
IB 452 - Ecosystem Ecology LAW
LAW 616 - Environmental Law and Policy I
LAW 618 - Natural Resources
ME 400 - Energy Conversion Systems
NRES 419 - Environment & Plant Ecosystems
NRES 454 - GIS in Natural Resource Management
NRES 456 - Integrative Ecosystem Management
NRES 516 - Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
RLST 494 - The Science and Ethics of Sustainability
UP 494 - International Environmental Policy and Practice
UP 546 - Land Use Policy and Planning
Tools and Methods
BIOE 505 - Computation in Systems Biology
BIOE 506 - Molecular and Cellular Engineering
ChBE 471 - Biochemical Engineering
CHEM 470 - Computational Chemical Biology
CHEM 574 - Genomics, Proteomics, and Bioinformation
CPSC 440 - Applied Statistical Methods I
CPSC 454 - Plant Breeding Methods
CPSC 563 - Molecular Cytogenetics
CPSC 567 - Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
CPSC 568 - Recombinant DNA Technology Laboratory
CPSC 569 - Applied Bioinformatics
CPSC 585 - Plant Biochemical Genetics
CPSC 588 - Plant Biochemistry
MCB 424 - Microbial Biochemistry
MCB 501 - Advanced Biochemistry
MCB 502 - Advanced Molecular Genetics
