Graduate Training at the Oregon State University Hermiston Agriculture Research and Extension Center (HAREC): A Novel, Experiential Program
This graduate training program is part of the effort by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to train Master’s and doctoral students in areas where there is a national need for the development of scientific and professional expertise in the food and agricultural sciences.
Profile of the program
The need for healthy and sustainable food is a tremendous challenge facing agriculturalists and natural resource managers. Along with the growing human population, increased levels of pollutants, decreased freshwater resources, invasive pests, emerging crop diseases, and climate change are all factors influencing society’s ability to meet food resource demands. To address these emerging issues, the faculty at HAREC have developed an integrative, experiential graduate training program that involves graduate students in multiple disciplines, local stakeholder, and OSU faculty that meets the needs of producers and natural resource managers.
OSU is a leader in cutting-edge research, extension, and education and an extremely high-quality institution for graduate education in the sciences, enhancing the diversity of the student population according to the universities strategic plan.
Academic advising, research training, professional counseling, mentoring
Our philosophy at the OSU and HAREC is to develop leaders in research, extension and outreach with a broad vision that integrates concepts in sustainable agriculture and natural resources.
In line with developing a comprehensive vision with the multi-disciplinary nature of the faculty at the HAREC, our students will pursue research projects in diverse fields such as:
- Terrestrial Ecology
- Crop Entomology
- Microbiology/Plant Nutrition
- Plant Biology/Biochemistry
- Crop Improvement
- Soil Science/Nitrogen Cycling
- Plant Pathology
- Aquatic Bio-assessment/Water Quality
- Rural and Environmental Economics
Academic Advising, research training, professional counseling, mentoring, pipelining
Advising will involve regular meetings with students, individually and/or group, assisting each student in developing a course curriculum that meets all of the university and departmental requirements. Meetings will provide a means to monitor the progress of all of the students in their core proficiencies.
Faculty Involved
Current Graduate Students
Professional Mentoring Committee
Greg Harris, Threemile Canyon, LLC; Josh Adkins (Syngenta); Steve Potts (Lamb Weston); Tom Drader (ConAgra); Matthew Blua (Washington State Potato Commission); Greg Silbernagel (Oregon Water Resources); Cheryl Shippentower (The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation); Tom Demianew (Oregon Department of Agriculture)
Activities: hands-on research, extension, teaching and other activities
Our training program will enhance the intellectual capital of students by training them in a multidisciplinary fashion and by working closely with stakeholders outside of the academic community.
Students will graduate with a broad perspective of research, extension and outreach, an appreciation of the importance of local and regional stakeholder input into the development of research and extension programs.
Examples
Scientific meetings
- Entomological Society of America
- Potato Association of America
- Ecological Society of America
- American Phytopathological Society
- Crop and Soil Science Society
Extension Meetings
For more information, contact Scott Lukas.