Our Unique Program

Candidates may specialize in genetics and breeding of tropical fruits, vegetables, or ornamentals; physiology, culture, and management of tropical fruits, vegetables, or ornamentals; morphogenesis; crop and stress physiology; post-harvest physiology; growth regulation; plant biochemical genetics; plant cytogenetics; weed science; computer modeling; or turf and landscape management, cropping systems, plant-soil relationships, soil chemistry, soil physics, soil management, soil and water conservation, soil fertility, and soil microbiology.

Courses are available in tropical flower, fruit, and vegetable crop production; turfgrass and landscape management; plant physiology, breeding, and genetics; and soil science. The comprehensive curriculum affords students the opportunity to study tropical plants and soils across multiple scales, including molecules, whole plants, and managed agro-ecosystems.

• Research can be conducted on laboratory bench-tops, in new campus greenhouses, or in the field on privately held lands or at research centers and experiment stations located on five islands. UH Mānoa is an accredited land-grant university in the tropics, and the TPSS program has a tropical emphasis that you won’t find on the U.S. mainland.
• TPSS students have access to advanced molecular biotechnology and information technology and to plots where they can practice sustainable and organic farming approaches firsthand. They work with mouth-watering tropical fruits and vegetables and world-class specialty crops like coffee, cacao, and kava (‘awa). They grow eye-popping ornamental flowers and foliage and learn to manage turfgrasses for private lawns, public parks, and more than 100 golf courses statewide. (And they enjoy twelve months of spectacular weather, mountains, valleys, beaches, and reefs.)
• O‘ahu is called the Gathering Place, and the TPSS program at UH Mānoa exemplifies this inclusiveness. Students, faculty, and staff from six continents and across the Pacific Islands bring a global perspective to our department. The TPSS program participates in WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, through which TPSS applicants from 14 Western states outside Hawai‘i can request reduced tuition rates for undergraduate study or automatically receive Hawai‘i-resident tuition rates for graduate study.

This YouTube video was made by TPSS former graduate students: Drs. Orville Baldos and Scott Lukas. The video highlights how agricultural and environmental sustainability are important issues in Hawai‘i.

Where do our students come from?

Our students come from many backgrounds, including some who enter our program with little knowledge of the environmental or agricultural sciences. Mature students are especially welcome. What draws us together is a keen interest in applying science for the purpose of finding practical solutions to problems. If you share that interest, our academic programs could be right for you. Come on in! E komo mai!