Plants in the greenhouse complex at Guterman Lab.

SIPS Degrees & Programs

Gain critical skills to advance your knowledge and address local and global challenges.

The School of Integrative Plant Science is the largest academic unit in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It is composed of five sections with interrelated activities in the plant sciences: Horticulture, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, and Soil and Crop Sciences.

Degree programs

students at dilmun hill student farm
Undergraduate

The Cornell CALS plant sciences major prepares students for careers or further study in fundamental biology, plant breeding, pest and disease management and production of plants for food, fiber and ornamental uses.

students looking at rice plants
Graduate - M.S./Ph.D.

Graduate study in SIPS is organized into five graduate fields. Collectively these fields provide unparalleled opportunities to connect disciplines, creatively solve problems and integrate complex systems. Includes graduate fields of Horticulture, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, and Soil and Crop Sciences.

people driving a hemp harvester in the field
Graduate - Integrative Plant Science MPS

The Master of Professional Studies (MPS) degree in Integrative Plant Science is a one-year, course-based master's degree, ideal for individuals who are interested in in-depth study of the issues and advancements in plant and soil sciences.

Continuing education

Our school is committed to lifelong learning, offering a wide range of programming and skill building for children and adults alike. See featured education programs to take advantage of these opportunities, including online courses and seminar, garden tours and more.

News from the School of Integrative Plant Science

Learn about the many ways we are addressing some of the world's most urgent challenges.

Close-up image of a berry

News

Knowing berry pests’ varied diets may help control them
With New York state’s $20 million berry industry entering peak season, an invasive fruit fly is thriving. Female spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura) have a special ovipositor (a tube through which a female insect deposits eggs...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Department of Entomology
Plant scientist investigates his hemp crop

News

Schumer announces funding for hemp seed bank at Cornell
The 2018 Farm Bill changed federal policy regarding industrial hemp, including the removal of hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and the consideration of hemp as an agricultural product. The change created an agricultural opportunity...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plants
  • Horticulture
CALS and NYS leaders cut the ribbon on a new research facility

News

New lab opens at Cornell for invasive species research
For the last seven decades, Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) has been leading the fight against nematodes—invasive, microscopic worms that can destroy seasons’ worth of crops. However, researchers had been...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Agriculture
  • Organisms

News

Groundwater policies fire up air pollution in northwest India

A new study reveals how water-use policies require farmers to transplant rice later in the year, which in turn delays harvests and concentrates agricultural burnings of crop residues in November, a month when breezes stagnate, leading to...

  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
  • Agriculture
  • Health + Nutrition

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.