College of Agricultural Sciences

Oregon State University - Department of Horticulture

Oregonians enjoy a ‘green’ world of horticulture and plants, which enrich people’s lives, health, and communities. At the same time, the plants around us have a significant economic impact. In fact, the farm-gate value of Oregon nursery products is more than $1 billion, and Oregon’s landscape and golf industries bring in billions more. As Oregon’s land grant institution, Oregon State University has close ties to the past, present, and future of these important industries. OSU’s Department of Horticulture conducts cutting-edge research; provides Extension services to assist businesses and people in the growing, selling, and marketing of plants; develops innovative new uses and markets for plants in diverse environments; and, most importantly, trains the next generation of workers and leaders in the nursery, greenhouse, and ‘green’ industries. OSU has a significant impact. But the faculty of the Department of Horticulture envisions more. We seek to build a teaching and research program that is recognized nationally as the most compelling and dynamic program in the West, one that is a model for meeting the needs of our partners in industry while enriching the lives of our students through relevant, high-quality education.

Endowed Chair Nursery Management and Plant Materials $2.5 Million

To move the department to the next level, OSU seeks to recruit and retain a world-class professor who will focus exclusively on nursery production and plant materials and who will specialize in teaching undergraduates to be innovative, problem-solving thinkers with a strong background in horticulture.

Right now, three professors teach classes in plant materials and nursery production, but OSU has no specialist focused solely on preparing undergraduates for careers in the nursery industry. Creating a new faculty position through an endowed chair will allow our program to hire one of the very best professors in this discipline, building our program to a new level of excellence. The endowed chair will create a sustained teaching program in landscape plant materials, propagation, and nursery and greenhouse production. The chair holder would also conduct applied research identifying profitable new plant materials for traditional and innovative uses.

Benefits of the Endowed Chair in Nursery Management and Plant materials

• Exposes students to the expanding use of plants, including residential and commercial landscapes, parks, greenways, bioswales, wetlands, and landscape ecosystems.
• Prepares graduates to become managers with entrepreneurial skills seeing a green world.
• Expands the number of undergraduate options to attract more and diverse students for professions in horticulture, agricultural communication, enterprise development, and fields related to the social aspects of plants, such as wellness and human health.
• Builds a cadre of faculty in nursery and greenhouse production, and urban and community horticulture.
• Overlaps teaching and Extension programs to meet the growing needs of industry seeking information or distance education.
• Integrates new sciences and technologies to improve plants in managed landscapes.
• Encourages the innovation of new businesses and jobs, as well as new uses of plants in a “bio-engineered” landscape.

Contact Information

Todd Bastian, Director of Development, College of Agricultural Sciences
(541) 737-8724 • Todd.Bastian@oregonstate.edu