The new Plant Pathology and Microbiology Building dedicated to research and teaching was completed in August 2019. The building houses over 20 research faculty who are also performing work on plant pathology and plant microbiology. The new building consists of two wings: A wing with teaching and administrative facilities and B wing with research facilities. The B wing (4 floors) houses laboratory space for 21 faculty and faculty offices. Central open seating spaces are designed to maximize research communication and discussion. Most of the laboratories are interconnected to encourage collaborative research efforts. The B wing is designed as a non-public access facility, including 24-hour card swipe access and a dedicated research-only elevator.
Plant Pathology and Microbiology Building
The building opened on October 25th, 2019, is home to the advancement of understanding of interactions between plants and their microbial community, or microbiome.
Plant Pathology and Microbiology Building
496 Olsen Blvd.
2132 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-2132
Centeq Building
Located on West Campus, the Center building houses the Texas Plant Disease Diagnosis Laboratory. As one of the largest and most sophisticated academic facilities in the country, the Center Building is a service facility for diagnosis of plant diseases.
Centeq Building
Building 1605
1500 Research Pw
College Station, Texas 77843
Research and Extension Centers
The Texas A&M AgriLife operates 13 centers for research and extension located throughout the state, encompassing the wide range of agricultural ecosystems that characterize Texas agriculture. The purpose of these centers is to address the current needs of Texas agriculture as well as to conduct research on regionally important commodities. Through interaction with scientists at these centers, graduate students are able to become directly involved in the changing face of Texas agriculture.
Texas A&M AgriLife maintains an experimental farm for faculty and staff who need to conduct field experiments. The 3,000 acre farm is located 12 miles west of campus, and includes centralized farm and plot equipment, an aquaculture site, irrigation sources, and related support buildings.
Controlled Environment Facilities and Greenhouses
For those who require access to controlled environment facilities, the department maintains several self-contained, fully automated, reach-in and walk-in growth chambers that are capable of reproducing a wide range of climatic conditions. The department also maintains its own greenhouse facilities and has access to the more extensive university-maintained greenhouse system, including more than 14,000 square feet of self-contained greenhouses for work with transgenic plants.
Library Facilities
A major university library is absolutely essential to academic work. The Sterling C. Evans Library offers access to more than 1.9 million volumes, including all major scientific periodicals. Within the library, the Learning Resource Department has more than 150 microcomputers for faculty and student use, and computers are available for rapid searches of the literature. The Medical Sciences Library primarily serves the Colleges of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, but it is also available for use by students and faculty in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as well. This collection numbers more than 100,000 volumes and includes subscriptions to about 2,000 periodicals. Both the Medical Sciences Library and the Evans Library use modern electronic data transmission to obtain materials that are not locally owned, and students have access to all other major university libraries through interlibrary loan agreements.
Computer Facilities
Modern scholarship has been revolutionized in recent years with its utilization of computing resources. Texas A&M is at the forefront of the computer age with a Computing and Information Services (CIS) that is one of the most sophisticated computer facilities of any educational institution in the country. CIS is connected with departmental computing resources on a campus-wide fiber-optic network. The Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology also maintains its own computer network, supporting Apple, IBM and Unix computers. This network allows direct communication with other researchers in the same department, outside the department, on-campus, and world-wide. A departmental computing facility includes Apple and IBM compatible machines, slide maker and slide scanner, flatbed scanners, and laser printers distributed throughout the Peterson Building.
Microscope Facilities
Microscopes for a wide range of light microscopy are available within the department and offer the capacity for both still and video photography. For more sophisticated needs, the university’s Microscopy and Imaging Center offers access to instrumentation for both electron microscopy and light microscopy, including laser scanning confocal instrumentation.
Other Facilities
The university maintains other facilities that are essential to meet the needs of an academic research institution. The Office of Photographic Services and the Office of Biomedical Communications offer a wide range of photographic services. Biotechnology support laboratories offer services such as protein purification and sequencing, peptide synthesis, DNA sequencing, and oligonucleotide synthesis.