You are mapping the course of your future. With your undergraduate degree, you could have entered the work-force as a scientist, but by continuing your education you are increasing your future professional opportunities. By choosing graduate studies you have decided that you want to be a leader in the arena of life science research, teaching, and extension.
We are pleased that you have chosen our department to pursue your goals. We feel that plant pathology and environmental microbiology offer exciting opportunities that are likely to continue to increase in the future. Food supply and the quality of our food will remain issues of wide concern in the future, as they have been in the past. The potential for use of microorganisms to solve many of our environmental problems is just beginning to be realized. You have chosen a career that will offer you an exciting variety of opportunities.
As a faculty we are committed to providing you with the best training possible. Graduate study will be different from your experiences as an undergraduate. Our goal is not so much to provide you with masses of information, but to help you learn how to learn. The “facts” of science change continually, so you are starting a process that will continue throughout your life. Our success will be measured by how well you develop the discipline, the self-confidence, and the ethical standards that will be primarily responsible for your future success.
Much of what we teach will be by apprenticeship methods. There is considerable “art” in scientific research, teaching and extension. The best way to teach this is by the laboratory rotations, laboratory classes, seminar courses, field trips, and research experiences that will be provided to you. More of your learning will now be from the primary literature and from your personal contacts with professors, technical staff, and fellow students. Our primary purpose as university faculty is to share our knowledge and skills with students. The best way we know to do this is to include you in our current research, teaching, and extension activities.
Graduate Recruiting Co-Chairs:
Dr. Brian Shaw, Professor
213F PLPM Building
(979) 862-7518
bdshaw@tamu.edu
Dr. Sanjay Antony-Babu, Assistant Professor
406F PLPM Building
(979) 845-6964
sanjay@tamu.edu