New Blood in Biosystems Engineering

This fall, three new faculty members joined the Biosystems Engineering Department. Mark Dougherty, assistant professor of land and water resources engineering, comes to us from Virginia Tech where he recently completed his doctoral degree in civil engineering. He has a bachelor's in geography from Clarion University, a bachelor's in agricultural engineering from Texas Tech University, and a master's in biological systems engineering from Virginia Tech. Dougherty has several years of experience in extension and with engineering consulting firms. He is a registered professional engineer in Alabama, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Mark's research revolves around several decisive water quality and quantity issues within the state and region. He believes that one of our critical needs is to sustain our land and water resources for shared agricultural, forest and urban use.

Puneet Srivastava, assistant professor of forest engineering, comes to Auburn from The Patrick Center for Environmental Research in Philadelphia, Pa. He has also worked for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. He received his doctorate in biosystems engineering from Penn State University, his master's in biosystems engineering from the University of Arkansas, and his bachelor's in agricultural engineering from the University of Allahabad in India.

Srivastava is interested in monitoring and modeling of hydrologic and non-point pollutant transport and transformation processes at various scales; development and evaluation of best management practices for non-point source pollution control; application of geographic information systems, global positioning systems and remote sensing systems for natural resource management; animal waste management; and the effect of global climate change on hydrology and water quality.

Yifen Wang, assistant professor of food and bioprocess engineering, comes from Washington State University, where he received his doctorate in food engineering and later served as a post-doctoral research associate. He earned his bachelor's in food engineering from the Shanghai Fisheries University, a master's in environmental engineering from the University of Washington, and an M.B.A. from Washington State University. He has worked in the seafood processing industry and in the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Science.

His research interests are in food engineering and environmental engineering. He is interested in the development and application of advanced thermal processing techniques, such as radio frequency heating and microwave heating in pasteurization and sterilization of high quality food. The development and application of food safety programs such as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and hygienic design of food processing equipment and facilities is another area of focus. In the area of environmental engineering, his expertise is in membrane technologies including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis for water treatment.

These three individuals join John Fulton, assistant professor of machine systems engineering, who began work in January, 2004. Fulton is working in precision agriculture, precision forestry, and alternative energy.