As global population is expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050, it is estimated that world food production will need to increase by 70%. This is a significant challenge to current agricultural systems given rising energy prices, depletion of underground aquifers, loss of farmland to urbanization, and increased drought and flooding resulting from climate change.
Addressing this challenge will require significant advances in basic and applied research in plant systems, from plant biology and genetics, plant-microbe-soil interactions, plant-pathogen and plant-pest interactions, and plant genotype-phenotype relationships. The understanding and ability to develop such systems for food production demands inter- and trans-disciplinary training in biological and data sciences, creating a critical need for explicit training of future plant systems scientists. Through a proposed interdisciplinary graduate education program, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks to establish the development of data enabled strategies to advance research in and development of sustainable plant systems to prepare the next generation of plant and agricultural scientists to better respond to the challenges created by the increasing demands for diminishing natural resources and food.
Using modern techniques in high throughput data generation and data analysis, the program will increase scientific understanding of sustainable, complex plant systems, and provide unique cross-disciplinary training for graduate students in the earth, agronomic, and data sciences. Students will obtain a deep understanding of how sustainability is generated from complex relationships between plants, microbes, pests and pathogens, and the advanced quantitative and computational methods for exploring and characterizing such relationships.
“In addition to exposure to inter- and trans- disciplinary curricula, students will participate in internships and externships that involve real-world applications to encourage knowledge transfer and acquisition,” says Principal Investigator, Jennifer Clarke. “Through key strategic partnerships with external agencies the program will prepare individuals to meet the needs of regional, national, and international groups involved in sustainable agriculture and food production,” she adds.
The program expects to educate a next generation of scientists who are explicitly trained to exploit heterogeneous data sources to address challenges in sustainable plant systems, and can excel in interdisciplinary environments. The program will also represent an evolution in graduate training by incorporating novel, scalable educational methods that enable broad dissemination of knowledge and catalyze a shift in the academic culture by engaging individuals from quantitative and biological sciences towards a common goal to enable them to interact and exchange knowledge across academic borders for the benefit of themselves and society.
Core Participants include Jennifer Clarke (PI), Statistics, Food Science and Technology, Jim Alfano (co-PI) UNL Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Science Innovation (PSI), Nicholas Miller (co-PI) Entomology, James Schnable (co-PI) Agronomy and Horticulture, PSI, David Swanson (co-PI) Computer Science and Engineering, Keenan Amundsen, Agriculture and Horticulture, Thomas Clemente, Agronomy and Horticulture, PSI Joyce Schmeekle, Schmeekle Research Inc., Karrie Weber, School of Biological Sciences, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Hongfeng Yu, Computer Science and Engineering, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Tala Awada, School of Natural Resources, Rhae Drijber, Agronomy and Horticulture, Yufeng Ge, Biological Systems Engineering, David Holding, Agronomy and Horticulture, PSI, Dann Husmann, Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication, Istvan Ladunga, Statistics, Hasan Otu, Electrical Engineering, Daniel Schachtman, Agronomy and Horticulture, PSI, Yumou Qiu, Statistics, Bin Yu, SBS, PSI, Chi Zhang, SBS, PSI.
Externship Partners include Monsanto, Dupont Pioneer, Li-Cor, iPlant Collaborative/University of Arizona, Valent Biosciences, and Mt. Holyoke College.
The National Science Foundation’s National Research Traineeship (NRT) program was developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists, engineers, and educators with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become in their own careers the leaders and creative agents for change. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education, for students, faculty, and institutions, by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is also intended to facilitate greater diversity in student participation and preparation, and to contribute to the development of a diverse, globally-engaged science and engineering workforce.
NRT is an NSF-wide endeavor involving the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), Geosciences (GEO), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), the Office of Polar Programs (OPP), and the Office of International Science and Engineering (INT).