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 two core courses:
ACES 409 Bioenergy Systems (3 hours)
ACES 498 Advanced Bioenergy Topics (2 hours)
Electives are selected from four specialty areas, based on individual career interests and priorities:
- 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.
Plant, Soils & Feedstocks
| CPSC/ PLPA 407 | Diseases of Field Crops | 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 | Soil and Water Conservation |
| CPSC 499 | Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics | CPSC 518 | Crop Growth and Development |
| CPSC 538 | Environmental Plant Physiology | CPSC 558 | Quantitative Plant Breeding |
| CPSC 566 | Plant Gene Regulation | 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 |
| TSM 484 | Grain Bioprocessing Coproducts | FSHN 471 | Food & Industrial Microbiology |
| MSE 498 | Material Science and Engineering for Sustainability | NPRE 498 | Fuel Cell Science and Technology |
| FSHN 460/ 461/462 | Food Processing I+II, Engineering |
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 | Spatial Econometrics |
| ACE 592 | Regional and Rural Development Policy | 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 | GEOL 497 | The Challenge of A Sustainable Earth System |
| GEOG 570 | Advanced Spatial Analysis | HORT 441 | Greenhouse Management and Crop Production |
| IB 452 | Ecosystem Ecology 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 |
| CPSC/ PLPA 407 | Diseases of Field Crops | 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 | Soil and Water Conservation |
| CPSC 499 | Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics | CPSC 518 | Crop Growth and Development |
| CPSC 538 | Environmental Plant Physiology | CPSC 558 | Quantitative Plant Breeding |
| CPSC 566 | Plant Gene Regulation | 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 |
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 |