Welcome
to the University of Florida
Entomology and Nematology Department
The Department of
Entomology and Nematology maintains
tripartite priorities consistent with the mandate given to full-service
landgrant universities and associated experiment stations: research,
extension, and instruction. These programs are facilitated with state
funding, extramural contract and grant funding, donations and gifts,
and the collaborative efforts of cooperating agencies and institutions.
This Department is
unusual in that about 40 of its 70+ faculty
are not located on the main campus; rather, they are located at 10 Research
and Education
Centers distributed throughout
the state. This provides an
exceptional opportunity for students to work in diverse ecological and
crop production systems. Gainesville
faculty
and staff
are
housed in a state-of-the-art facility
constructed in 1990.
Entomology and Nematology
offers an undergraduate
program
leading to a B.S., and graduate
programs
leading to M.S. (thesis), M.S. (non-thesis) and Ph.D degrees
(summary of
number of these degrees awarded from 1974 - present) in entomology and
nematology. Distance
education courses,
including programs leading to certificates and degrees, are also
available. The Department is one of the largest entomology
programs nationwide, and one of only a few that offer comprehensive
training in Nematology. Besides providing a full complement of regular
and special topics courses needed for degree candidates, the Department
offers, at the undergraduate level, service courses in basic entomology
for a wide range of disciplines and plays a major role in the
interdisciplinary plant protection specialization of the plant science
major. Further, departmental faculty offer courses that are credited to
the Liberal Arts and Sciences undergraduate honors and general
education requirements. Students have access to a wide variety of services
and
organizations.
With United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
laboratories in Gainesville (CMAVE)
Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology,
the Division
of Plant Industry (DPI),
and the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UF, there are more
than 180 professional entomologists in Gainesville.
Formal
and informal relations exist among all these and other institutions,
and make the University of Florida an exceptionally exciting and
diverse location for the study of entomology and nematology. Gainesville
is also
considered one of the best places to live in the United States. The
city and its environs offer great opportunities for adventure.
Entomology and Nematology
faculty and staff garner several
million dollars in extramural and donation support annually for pursuit
of a wide range of research, instruction, and extension activities.
These sources of funding support about 100 graduate
students
pursuing M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees. About 25% of all graduate students
are international. This, plus significant collaborative international
research and education grants procured by entomology-nematology
faculty, give the department a strong international dimension in
addition to its domestic mandate.
Molecular, whole
organism, and population ecology studies are
included in the range of supported research within Entomology and
Nematology. The USDA, National Science Foundation, Kellogg Foundation,
the Agency for International Development, various agrichemical
industries, and the State of Florida are among the donors sponsoring
departmental research, extension, and instruction programs. The
Department also maintains an active research program in the development
and testing of multi-lingual programmed instructional materials in
ecology, pest management and related subjects and has a self-contained
computer laboratory where, among other activities, computer aided
instructional materials can be delivered.
The quality of incoming
graduate students is high. For
example, in recent years, grade point averages and GRE (combined)
scores were about 3.1 and 1130 for enrolled domestic students.
The large number of
professional entomologists and
nematologists who work in Gainesville (USDA, DPI, and University)
allows the department, through courtesy appointment, to offer a wide
array of quite specialized courses to departmental graduate students.
Often, this is the only way a student can receive formal training in
some specialized area unique to entomology or nematology. We consider
the ability of the department to offer specialized training by
recognized authorities a major strength of the program.
Graduates of the
department programs ( list
of
M.S. and Ph. D.
graduates 1991 - present ), at all
levels, have been very successful in
obtaining employment in the field; nearly half of the graduates remain
in Florida. Graduates are working in academia, private industry, and
government (research and regulatory).
It is not surprising that
the programs of the Department are
very diverse when one considers the large faculty,
each with
his/her own areas of specialization and interest. The Department has
coordinated faculty efforts and strengths into what could be considered
major thrust areas for the Department. These areas of emphasis include:
- Behavior, Ecology, and
Systematics
- Biological Control
- Medical, Veterinary
and Urban Entomology
- Nematology
- Pest Management
- Physiology, Biochemistry,
and Genetics
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