Plant pathology is the study of diseases and the health and defensive systems of plants. Students learn how plants interact with the environment and the different diseases they can get. They also study ways of preventing and treating these diseases.
Did you know that on the various college campuses at Oxford University, there are signs posted that say, "Please do not walk on the grass?" In a culture where we like to run through sprinklers on our front lawns or eat picnics on fields in grassy parks, that rule may seem like a hard one to follow. Then again, there's certainly something to be said for people who take their lawns and other plants seriously.
If you've taken a biology class, you may have learned that plants are the reason we have air to breathe. They are living creatures that absorb the toxic carbon dioxide that we exhale and convert it into oxygen for us to inhale. And like all living creatures, plants can be healthy or unhealthy. They are as vulnerable to the effects of disease, harmful living conditions, and poor nutrition as we are.
Studying a subject called "plant pathology" teaches you about plant diseases, and how we can control them to ensure that our world's plants stay safe and healthy. You learn that plant diseases can be caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, and other unfriendly organisms. You might study diseases that plague certain kinds of plants, such as fruit and vegetable crops, forest trees, or even our beloved grassy lawns.
In medicine, you don't just study diseases. You also study the human body, and the kinds of environmental factors that might help cause a disease. In the same way, plant pathology programs also teach you about the anatomy and physiology of plants. Additionally, you learn how sunlight, weather, and nutrition might make a plant more sensitive to a disease.
A background in plant pathology prepares you for a wide range of careers. You can specialize in certain kinds of plant diseases, or in the diseases of certain plants. You could work for companies that take care of turfgrass. You could be become a research biologist or technician, discovering new information about the field. Or you could work in greenhouses, farms, or government agencies. These are just a few of the possibilities!
About 35 colleges and universities offer programs in plant pathology where you can earn a bachelor's, a master's, or a doctoral degree. In general, a bachelor's degree takes about four years of study after high school, and a master's degree takes about one to two years after that. If you already have a master's, a doctoral degree usually takes about three to four additional years. Otherwise, you typically need four to five years of full-time study after completing a bachelor's degree to get a doctoral degree.