Mission and Goals

Introduction

Founded over 236 years ago in 1766, Rutgers is distinguished as one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the country. Rutgers University is comprised of 29 undergraduate colleges and graduate and professional schools and is among the nation's most prestigious educational institutions. The campus is in close proximity to many of the nation's premier high technology industries including the food and pharmaceutical industries.

In the spring of 2001, the Department of Plant Pathology and the Department of Plant Science merged to become the largest department at Cook College, now the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

The Plant Biology and Pathology Department is located on the scenic and environmentally friendly Cook Campus/Douglas College Campus and in close proximity to the Jersey shore and Pine Barrens. The fifty-member faculty resides in the Foran Hall state-of-the-art research laboratory and office facilities. The faculty offers undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral educational and research programmatic opportunities in Molecular Biology/Biotechnology, Plant Breeding and Genetic Improvement, Plant Diversity and Natural Products, Plant Management, Plant Pathology and Horticultural Engineering.

Mission

The mission of the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology is to discover and disseminate knowledge. The Department is the center of higher education in basic and applied areas of plant biology in the State of New Jersey, and trains students for baccalaureate and advanced degrees. The Department is also the source of information and expertise to the citizenry on matters relating to agricultural production and management, horticultural engineering, plant breeding, plant protection, plant biotechnology, genomics, and the sustainable utilization and stewardship of plant resources for the benefit of humankind.

Goal

The goal of the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology is to be a national and international leader in the disciplines of plant biology by conducting original, creative, and innovative research and by providing outstanding educational and outreach programs. The Department strives to positively impact the economy and quality of life for the citizens of New Jersey by developing the technologies and products those will power sustainable plant industries in the state.

Anticipated Changes in the Department

1. In the health crops area we plan to hire a plant genomics faculty member who can collaborate with our food crop breeding programs to help increase the health value of the plant varieties emerging from NJAES breeding programs.
2. In the nursery crops area we will consolidate ornamental nut, holly, and dogwood breeding programs into a single effort. We have hired a young plant breeder ( Dr. Tom Molnar, Assistant Instructor) to help us in this integration. Because of the importance of nursery crops to New Jersey - we intend to maintain the ornamental breeding program beyond the retirement of Dr. Elwin Orton. This is an extremely important sector of New Jersey agriculture with major economic impacts.  NJAES nursery crop products and innovation can have an important influence on this sector of New Jersey agriculture. It is of strategic importance to NJAES that we advance in the area of nursery crops.



3. In the turfgrass area we have recently hired an Assistant Professor of turfgrass breeding. Future development in this area of research involves the increasing application of genomics approaches to grass breeding. We have developed a collaborative relationship with Dr. Jo Messing at the Waksman Institute and collectively Drs. Bonos, Belanger, Meyer, Zilinskas, and Messing have embarked on a major genomics project major focused on grasses. This project also involves collaborations with several other University based research groups in the U.S. We intend to continue exploring genomics applications in turfgrass breeding.



4. In addition to enhancing research in strategic areas, we are also paying more attention to the business side of the department's intellectual properties. For example, we will be evaluating some potential licensees for NJAES asparagus cultivars. This is very important for the vegetable research program at NJAES because this is the main royalty source for this area, adding approximately $250,000 annually in royalties. Currently we have a single licensee for all NJAES asparagus cultivars. A few (2-3) additional licensees would develop a competitive condition among NJAES partners for our new asparagus varieties. This has the potential to maximize the distribution of NJAES asparagus cultivars and the royalties that are garnered. The long-term goal is to increase the royalty stream in vegetable breeding so that the department and NJAES will have an increased revenue stream to invest in hiring a vegetable breeder to establish vegetable breeding programs at the NJAES.



5. We are planning to consolidate and enhance the NJAES programs in strategic areas of horticulture. We will be holding a strategic planning meeting with a broad base of NJAES horticultural stakeholders (e.g., agents, specialists, research/teaching faculty, as well as commercial growers). It is our intention to develop a consensus with regards to future development of horticulture at the NJAES. Some of the questions to be addressed include the following: What is our vision for the future? Where should we invest? How much investment is needed? Which stakeholders can aid us in developing the horticultural programs of the future at the NJAES?



6. To develop the department in terms of teaching improvement, we are implementing two programs: 1. Peer review of courses; and 2. On-line enhancement of courses. Our peer review program is well underway and we have already seen some faculty make improvements in courses as a result of this process. The faculty appreciates the importance that we have given to their individual teaching programs through peer review efforts. All undergraduate and graduate courses will be peer reviewed over the next year. We anticipate that peer review will be conducted on a regular 3-year cycle, depending on the frequency of the course. We are also encouraging faculty to explore the use of on-line course components. We have hired a staff member to help faculty use eCompanion and other on-line teaching programs. To this point we have added on-line components to courses taught by Drs. Lena Struwe (Vascular Plant Taxonomy), Jack Sacalis (Commercial Floral Design), A.J. Both (Greenhouse Design), George Wulster (Greenhouse Environmental Control), Bingru Huang (Plant Physiology), and several others. Efforts are also being made to renovate the Department and Graduate Program web pages.



7. Improvements are planned in the Plant Biology Graduate Program. Recently the program, under the direction of Dr. Tom Leustek, completed one and a half years of review of core requirements. As a result of a proposal that emerged from the curriculum committee, chaired by Dr. Hugo Dooner, we will be making alterations to the core curriculum to include a new seminar course where students will get special training in the current research of their particular track. The department will continue to support the graduate program through the allocation of significant funding ($10,000 per year) for the seminar program. We intend to enhance promotion of the graduate program by encouraging faculty to actively market the Plant Biology Graduate Program at professional meetings and conferences. We have developed a marketing instrument to attract students into the program. We have allocated departmental Graduate Assistant resources to incoming students in an effort to produce better recruitment packages for good students. Additionally, individual faculty are making personal contacts with potential students to encourage them to enter the Rutgers program.



8. The staff of the department have made significant strides to improve efficiency since the fusion of the Plant Science and Plant Pathology Departments almost 3 years ago. Under the leadership of the department's business manager Ms. Barbara Fitzgerald, the financial operations and reporting functions of the department have improved greatly. Future improvements in business operations of the department include: 1) to increase the timeliness of TABER processing, 2) to develop protocols for on-line time reporting, and 3) to increase staff support to faculty in grant proposal and budget preparation and submission.