Botany

Undergraduate study: Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BS), or Minor in Botany.

Academic Program

The department is committed to broad-based botanical training that focuses on developing an understanding of Hawai‘i’s unique island environment. While it maintains traditional areas of botanical study, the department also uses new approaches and current technologies. It has faculty in anatomy, ecology, systematics, ethnobotany, physiology, and population and evolutionary biology. Research programs focus on ecology, evolution and conservation of Hawai‘i’s ecosystem and unique endemic flora; the ecology and physiology of marine macroalgae; invasion biology by alien weeds; and the uses of plants by the human cultures of the Pacific Basin.

The botany programs strongly emphasize field experience and hands-on laboratory training with locally important plants, their environment, historical and present uses, as well as the unique aspects of plant evolution and ecology in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. UHM has the only botany department located in a tropical environment in the U.S. Hawai‘i’s location provides botany students with the best opportunity for exploration of tropical marine or terrestrial ecosystems available anywhere in the U.S. The varied environments and climates present in the islands allow work from oceanic reefs to the tops of snow-covered volcanoes. The isolation and geology of the islands have produced a unique flora, unmatched in its potential for effective study of systematic, evolutionary, ecological, and ethnobotanical questions.

Undergraduate majors follow a number of career paths leading to employment as naturalists, environmental planners, policy makers, conservation biologists, teachers, researchers, and museum or organizational directors. A number of graduates have assumed important positions in public and private institutions at the national and international levels.

Major-related skills

In addition to discipline specific content, botany majors have the ability to:

apply scientific methodology and use scientific equipment.

organize and maintain accurate records.

analyze, problem solve, and make analogies proficiently.

compute numerically and conduct basic statistical analyses.

integrate ideas and concepts across biological disciplines.

design, conduct, and interpret scientific research.

make critical observations and evaluations, and apply the scientific approach to problems.

present results and conclusions verbally and in writing.

present information through the design and production of charts and graphs.

Declaring Botany as a major

Click here for a form-fillable major declaration form. Complete the first page of the Declaration of Major form and print two copies. Make an appointment with a faculty advisor in the Botany Department to discuss your interests, major requirements, and course selection. The advisor will complete the second page of the form. Two copies of the completed form should then be turned in to the service counter for Arts & Sciences Student Academic Services.

Click here for concurrent degree requests (i.e., between A&S and another college or different degree programs within A&S, such as concurrent BA and BS degrees).

Created by Lynne Higa, Michael Kirk-Kuwaye

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