Biological & Agricultural Engineering (Graduate Program)

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For information regarding the UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM, click here. 

Program Overview

Established in 1921, the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering is a biologically-oriented engineering discipline working on cutting edge research, teaching, and service in biomedical, bioenvironmental, bioprocess, biomechanical, and related areas. The curriculum offers a unique opportunity to earn an engineering degree with emphasis in biological, physical, and engineering sciences.

Biological and agricultural engineering extends basic, applied, and engineering sciences to the measurement, analytical characterization, and constraining descriptions of organisms and their environments. It is based on the basic sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. These are integrated with the engineering sciences of statics, dynamics, strength of materials, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and electricity. Students can pursue more specialized interests through technical electives in biomedical, biomechanical, bioenvironmental, and bioprocess engineering.

Current areas of research include simulation of biological and agricultural systems, by-products utilization and value added processing, biological waste management, environmental resources protection and reclamation, aquacultural systems, bioenergy, food processing and preservation, drainage, irrigation, erosion control systems, climatology, biomechanics, remote sensing applied to precision agriculture, molecular and cellular engineering, and nano-bioengineering.

Administration

Admission

Applications and supporting materials for all graduate study must be submitted through the online application site for the LSU Graduate School: www.lsu.edu/gradapply. Official transcripts, official test scores, and other materials that come from third-party sources must be mailed to: Graduate Student Services, 114 West David Boyd Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. These paper documents are stored electronically and departments have access to all materials submitted by and/or on behalf of a student applying to graduate study.

Applications for admission are received and evaluated by the department (with March 1 being the normal deadline for fall admissions). Applicants must adhere to the application deadlines established by the Graduate School.

Students seeking admission must submit satisfactory credentials from previous study, acceptable GRE scores, and three letters of recommendation. International students whose native language is not English must also submit an acceptable TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE score.

Financial Assistance

Research assistantships are available to qualified students on a competitive basis. Doctoral students may also compete for Board of Regent Graduate Fellowships. Applications are available through the department.

Financial assistance is available to some students. Support may be available through the student’s home department or other units in the form of research or teaching assistantships. A student should contact his or her home department for more information on available assistantship positions. To ensure consideration for financial aid, all application materials should be submitted in accordance with deadlines, normally by March 1 for fall and by October 1 for spring and the deadlines established by the LSU Graduate School.

Graduate Faculty

(check current listings by department by clicking this link)

Richard L. Bengtson (M) • Water pollution, soil erosion, hydrologic modeling
Dorin Boldor (M) • Food process engineering and bioenergy
David Constant (M) • Transport and fate of hazardous substances, environmental engineering, bioremediation
Steven G. Hall (M) • Aquacultural, ecological and coastal bioengineering, environmental bioethics
Daniel Hayes (6A) • Nanomaterial and nanoscale influence
Thomas B. Lawson (EM) • Aquaculture systems, bioenvironmental engineering
Marybeth Lima (M) • Bioprocessing engineering, value-added processing
W. Todd Monroe (M) • Molecular and cellular engineering
Cristina M. Sabliov (M) • Bioprocessing, separation methods, FEA modeling
Chandra S. Theegala (M) • By-product utilization, bioenergy, wastewater treatment, biosensing
Malcolm E. Wright (EM) • Mechanization of biological and agricultural systems

Faculty in other departments:

Giovanna Aita (3F) • Biomass conversion, antimicrobials for food, characterization of antimicrobial resistant bacteria
Subramaniam Sathivel (M) • Food engineering with emphasis on design and development of food processing unit operations; preservation and packaging of foods (coatings, edible films, microencapsulation); thermal, rheological, and functional properties of ingredients and foods; development of nonfood materials from biological wastes including biodiesel
Louis Thibodeaux (M) • Chemodynamics, hazardous waste transport

(See departmental website for latest listing.)

Programs

• Engineering Science, Ph.D.

• Biological & Agricultural Engineering, M.S.BAE

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