Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Breeding

Plant breeding programs in Soil and Crop Sciences seek to alter the genetic composition of plants to improve crop characteristics. Our plant breeding and genetics faculty members rely on conventional and molecular breeding techniques to modify specific targets such as yield potential, crop quality, biotic and abiotic stress resistance, and/or reduced crop production costs. Breeders of grain crops such as corn, wheat, sorghum, and rice have developed varieties that have improved grain yield, resist diseases and insect pests, resist lodging, and possess improved nutrition or processing quality.

Our faculty have developed genotypes of bioenergy crops such as sweet sorghums, sugar cane, forage sorghums, and perennial grasses with exceptional sugar production per unit land area for ethanol production or biomass for cellulosic ethanol production. Cotton breeders and geneticists in Soil and Crop Sciences have developed unique interspecies lines through hybridization of different species of cotton as well as developed strains with exceptional fiber quality and drought tolerance. Our plant breeding faculty work with sugar cane, rice, cotton, corn, cowpea, wheat, oat, sorghum, perennial grasses, turf grasses, forage legumes, and peanut.

You are an international graduate applicant if you:
hold a bachelor's or professional degree (or equivalent)

Official Transcripts and Records -
Transcripts are considered official if they have an original signature of a school official or an original school seal. Accepted signatures include the Registrar, Principal, Controller of Examinations, or The Ministry of Education. Photocopies or other duplications of a transcript, such as notarized copies, faxed, or scanned documents are not considered official.

an IELTS score of at least 6.0,
a TOEFL score of at least 80 on TOEFL iBT (550 paper-based)