Current Students
Oscar Ruiz, Jr. 
I am from Inglewood, CA. My early experience in agriculture had been in scouting cotton, cucurbits, barley, wheat, asparagus, and green onions with my uncle in the Mexicali Valley from the ages of 10-14. I obtained my B.S. in Agronomy with a minor in plant pathology from Cal Poly Pomona. In college, I worked on the university farm harvesting, tilling, planting, irrigating, and spraying fields. After graduation, I worked for two years at Soil & Plant Laboratories, Inc. in Orange, CA. as the assistant plant pathologist. My duties were to process disease samples, develop pathogen isolation protocols, and diagnose diseases. This gave me extensive experience especially in ornamental and landscape horticulture. I attribute mostly all my knowledge of plant disease to the plant pathologist, Paul Santos. After two years of working at the lab, I decided it was time for graduate 
school. The Plant Medicine program appealed to me because it did not involve research. I am currently in the second year of the program and already it has opened the door to many job opportunities. Presently, I am working for the agricultural consulting company Agritechnologies Inc. Two days out of the week I scout tomatoes, peppers, and cucurbits in all of southern Florida. I also work at for UF's Plant Disease Clinic in the Rapid Turfgrass Diagnostic Service. My hobbies are photography, gardening, fishing, swimming, and playing the guitar.
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