Fall 2025 OLLI Digital Catalog 

Plant Health And Global Food Security (P204)

P – Life Sciences

Plant health is fundamental to the production of crops which are important to the survival of humanity. The goal of this course is to explore plant pathology as a biological science with important ties to human welfare.  You will gain an understanding of food production systems and the impact of plant disease caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes as well as climate change and their impact on human culture through lectures, readings and discussions about major plant epidemics and famines through history

This offering meets for a total of 7 session(s).

INSTRUCTOR: Tom Evans

TOM EVANS — Emeritus professor of botany and plant pathology at the University of Delaware, serving at the University for 37 years. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in botany at Cal Poly, Pomona and his Ph.D. in botany and plant pathology from Michigan State University in 1985. His research group at the University of Delaware focused on etiology, epidemiology, and control of diseases of lima bean, the cornerstone of the Delaware vegetable production industry. He taught a non-major’s course entitled People and Plants: Feast or Famine (now Plant health and Global Food Security) as well as Introductory Plant Pathology and Plant Virology and led 10 study abroad trips to Ecuador and the Galapagos teaching the flora of the archipelago. Tom led research and service programs in Ecuador, Morocco, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic funded by USAID to support in the sustainable production of various important vegetable crops.

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