A message from the Department Head
I hope you’ve enjoyed the fall color change–now we prepare to welcome winter. Thank you for the warm welcome! I am especially grateful to those who have offered me tips to survive my first Minnesota winter!
As the new kid on the block, I would like to briefly introduce myself, especially for people I have not had a chance to meet. I completed my undergraduate education in chemistry from Tianjin University, as well as my master’s in chemical engineering. I received a Ph.D. from New Jersey Institute of Technology, then followed up with postdoctoral training at Rutgers University on food science and active packaging.
Prior to joining the U of M, I was a department chair at Howard University in Washington DC. In addition to the leadership role and administrative work, I am very passionate about teaching students and mentoring them in research projects in the area of enzyme-based biocatalysis for bioproduct conversions and environmental remediation. Continue reading the full message.
Today is Give to the Max Day, Minnesota’s state-wide day of giving where we band together to make our state a better place. This year we’re raising money for BIPOC student scholarships.
Managed by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, our Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) scholarship recipients are supported by programming that builds a sense of community for students to ensure that they feel welcome and supported at CFANS and that they thrive while earning their undergraduate degree. Your gift will help these students achieve their goals and successfully complete a CFANS degree.
Your gift does more—help us unlock our $3,000 match!
Join together with other BBE alumni, friends, staff, and faculty to support our students. Thanks to a generous match from an anonymous donor, every gift will be matched up to $3,000.
Tell your friends! As an added bonus, every gift given on Give to the Max Day is eligible for thousands of dollars of prizes, regardless of the amount given. Share your support on social media with the hashtag #UMNGive for the chance to unlock thousands more in special prizes given throughout the day.
Student Voices
The power of fungi and fermentation
From co-ops working in pulp and paper, to an internship experimenting with mushroom slurries to make meat alternatives, Leif van Lierop has experienced what he would describe as a “well rounded” education during his time in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering (BBE) at the University of Minnesota.
Van Lierop is a Ph.D. candidate advised by BBE Professor Bo Hu, Ph.D. Last summer, van Lierop participated in a research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project’s overarching goal was to take a byproduct of dry milling corn-ethanol production and create a nutritious bioproduct that can be fed to animals.
During the process of converting the corn to ethanol, the yeast converts all the sugars, like starches, into alcohol, and after the ethanol is removed you are left with whole stillage–or a mix of water, fiber, protein, and various nutrients. The whole stillage then goes through a series of drying processes until it is ready for use as feed for cow. This bioproduct is not a feasible feed option for monogastric animals, or animals with just one stomach because they are unable to break down the fibers. During the NSF project, van Lierop and the team researched methods to break down this bioproduct even further, making it a viable and nutritious feed option for other animals, primarily pigs. One way of breaking down the fibers is to use fermentation. The research team looked at using fungi, which has been used in fermentation processes for human foods for hundreds of years–think miso soup, which is made from soybeans fermented with fungi found in koji rice.
BBE undergraduate student studies bee health at summer internship
These past two summers, BBE student Rachel Runzheimer has been working for the University of Wisconsin Madison in the Gratton Lab. As a field technician, she got to work with many different bee hives throughout the Madison region, where she is originally from. As a field technician she monitored bee and hive health while collecting data about standard temperature, humidity, beehive formation and taking note of the hive climate and ecosystem. This data collection allowed the University of Wisconsin Madison to gauge the bees overall health and ability to continue to pollinate the booming cranberry fields of southern Wisconsin. In addition to monitoring honey bees in their cranberry fielded homes, Runzheimer conducted laboratory work to determine bee health and hive productivity.
Student Spotlight
Chloe Beaudoin is a Sustainable Systems Management major in the Corporate Sustainable Systems specialization.
Learn about why Chloe chose SSM!
Matteo Bellazzini is a Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering major in the Environmental and Ecological Engineering specialization.
Learn about why Matteo chose BBE!
BBE Discovery
Digging into Minnesota's peat, an underappreciated climate superhero
In drier conditions, when plants or trees die, oxygen helps break them down. That releases their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. But that doesn't happen in peat bogs. Instead, the carbon stays locked up in the peat.
That makes peat an unsung “climate change superhero,” said Chris Lenhart, a University of Minnesota professor and researcher for the department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and The Nature Conservancy.
Peatlands cover only about three percent of the earth’s surface (nearly 10 percent of Minnesota’s acreage), but they store about 30 percent of the earth’s soil carbon.
BBE now a CERPIT-Aligned Program!
We are proud to announce that the Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering (BBE) bachelor's degree program — specifically, the Environmental and Ecological Engineering Specialization (EEE)— has recently completed the CERPIT alignment process. Through this alignment, BBE has created a clear pathway for graduates of our EEE program to become certified as CERPITs and enter the restoration workforce.
Learn more about the CERP program or the requirements to become a CERPIT as a EEE major.
BBE researchers find nitrous oxide emissions from Corn Belt soils spike when soils freeze, thaw
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide or methane. Often overlooked in climate change discussions because it’s less abundant in the atmosphere, its potency is about 300 times greater than carbon dioxide and researchers say its warming potential, especially via agriculture, demands attention.
Researchers from the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering (BBE) and the University of Illinois are investigating the drivers of agricultural nitrous oxide emissions from the U.S. Midwest in an effort to help stakeholders develop specific mitigation strategies to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
In a study recently published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, the researchers used an advanced process-based model to investigate the magnitude and drivers of nitrous oxide emissions during the non-growing season in the Midwest.
“Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils have mostly been studied during the growing season. Previous research shows non-growing season nitrous oxide emissions can contribute up to 70-90% of annual emissions in some years, but it's not clear how accurate that range is for the Midwest or what processes and management practices contribute to those emissions in the fall and winter," says Yufeng Yang, the study's lead author and a graduate student in BBE. Continue reading the full story in the U of M Research Brief.
Alumni Spotlight
Bachelor of Sustainable Systems Management
Sarah Whiteside is a Sustainable Systems Management alumna currently working as a Sustainability Analyst on the Corporate Sustainability, Inclusion and Social Impact team at Northern Trust.
Awards & Honors
BBSEM Ph.D. candidate receives People's Choice award at Science in Seconds
Vinni Thekkudan Novi represented BBE at the St. Paul Science in Seconds competition where she presented her thesis on copying and clumping DNA to prevent an oak tree epidemic in under three-minutes and won the People's Choice award. Read about her experience.
Upcoming Events & Announcements
Student spaces receive updates in Kaufert Lab and Biosystems Agricultural Engineering Building
BBE and SSM Capstone - Sponsors still needed! Deadline is November 19th
Have an idea for a future capstone project?
Thank you to all those who attended our BBE Showcase this fall!
Thank you donors!
Interested in supporting BBE?
Give to our BBE student scholarships today
Planned giving with the University
Planned gifts enable donors to accomplish their charitable and other goals by using estate or tax planning techniques to provide for charity and heirs in a way that maximizes the gift and minimizes taxes. Donors can make a planned gift by including the University in their will or trust, or by designating the U as a beneficiary of their retirement plan, life insurance policy, or other account. Some planned gifts can provide income to the donors or to others. Planned gifts can also be outright — when a donor makes a gift of real estate, tangible personal property, or other non-cash assets.