Courses described below are offered to CSU students.
Fall Semester
SOCR 455: Soil Microbiology
This class is a survey course of topics related to the soil microbiome, including tools used to measure the soil microbiome, the ecology and interactions (fungi, bacteria, archaea, viruses, macrofauna, plants), and the ecosystem functions soil microorganisms modulate. Special emphasis is placed on the role of soil microorganisms in agriculture and relationships to climate change.
Selected Spring Semesters
SOCR 545: Current Methods in Microbial Community Genomics
The characterization of the “omes” (e.g. metagenome, metatranscriptome, metaproteome, and metabolome) of microbiomes provides synergistic information to further our understanding of microbial community members, their interactions and the impacts they have on their environments. This course introduces students to cutting edge methods in these multi-omics methods as they are applied to environmental and host-associated microbiology via the review of recent, high-impact literature and literature of the students’ choice related to their research interests.
Selected Summer Semesters
SOCR 481A5: Soil Microbiome Research Experience
This is a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE). In this class, students will work in teams to analyze REAL agricultural soil metagenome data from ongoing CSU research projects to see how the soil microbiome changes (membership and function!) with agricultural management practices/perturbations.