MSc in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences in Honolulu United States | University of Hawaii at Manoa

To address the intricate challenges in agricultural plant production systems, successful integration across multiple disciplines is essential. Students can focus on areas like tropical fruit, vegetable, or ornamental plant genetics and breeding; tropical crop physiology, cultivation, and management; morphogenesis, stress physiology, and post-harvest science; plant growth regulation, biochemical genetics, cytogenetics, weed control, computational modeling, or turf and landscape management. Additional specializations include cropping systems, plant-soil interactions, soil chemistry, physics, conservation, fertility, and microbiology.
By combining coursework in botany, biochemistry, plant pathology, food science, genetics, microbiology, and zoology with TPSS offerings, students can tailor their academic path to align with professional goals.
Graduate programs leading to MS (Plan A, B, or C) and PhD degrees are available. The TPSS graduate curriculum includes degree and horticulture specialization options, focusing on cultivating problem-solving abilities through integrated molecular, biochemical, physiological, chemical, genetic, and ecological research approaches in plant and soil sciences.
The TPSS degree equips students with practical expertise in applying biotechnological principles to tropical crop production and understanding soil's critical function in agricultural ecosystems. This specialization demands knowledge of core biological concepts, molecular and organismal biology, genetics, plant physiology, chemistry, physics, and microbiology. Soil is examined both for its inherent characteristics and its vital role in crop cultivation and environmental sustainability.
The horticulture specialization delves into diverse aspects of tropical food and ornamental crop production, requiring comprehension of agricultural systems, plant cultivation, soil fertility, environmental conservation, and supporting fields like crop ecology, plant physiology, and molecular biology.