Message from Dr.Verma, Head of the Department:

Welcome to the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Arkansas. The department was established in 1920 to support other disciplines in the College of Agriculture, with the professional engineering program offered in 1949. The program was accredited by ABET in 1958 and has retained that status ever since. The Department celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first graduate in 1950 on May 11, 2000. My tenure here began on July 31, 2000 after spending 21 years at Lousiana State University. We are continually striving to improve our academic programs and refocusing our research and service functions, and have a great partner team in our extension Agricultural Engineers.

The undergraduate program has been revised and approved to a science-based Biological engineering curriculum and is called Biological Engineering. This degree will prepare students to apply engineering to solve problems in Biological Systems. Some examples of this are Biomedical, Biotechnology (Food, Nutraceutical, Pharmaceutical, Bioconversion, Bioreactors), and Ecological (Bioremediation, Water Quality, Natural Resources and Non-Point Source Pollution) Engineering. The revolution of Biotechnology, Biomedical, and Ecological Engineering has just begun. Engineers trained to apply their expertise to various Biological scenarios will have exciting job opportunities to choose from. Additionally, this engineering program will allow students to enter Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, Veterinary school or pursue graduate engineering programs in Biomedical or Biotechnology Engineering.

A true biology-based engineering curriculum has great potential of attracting and graduating high-ability young minds through this program. We have defined the specializations in Biological Engineering to be Biotechnology Engineering, Ecological Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering (including Pre-Med). These will also have a close match with research focus areas of our department.

There is sound rationale behind changing the curriculum to Biological Engineering. Since biology and agriculture go hand in hand, biological engineering holds great potential of appealing to students while continuing to serve agricultural interests. Thus, changes were initiated. These changes have resulted in redefinition of coursework now leading to the development of a science-based curriculum in Biological Engineering (BE).

This effort in no way diminishes our commitment to "agriculture" which we have pursued all along. We will continue this and will expand our scope and horizon to tap the great potential of Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Biomedical Engineering. To this end we have hired three new faculty and are in the process of hiring a fourth. We have also reactivated the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Advisory Board and productive meetings have already been held.

A new brochure describing the new Biological engineering program is ready and is being used extensively for recruiting. We need your help in this recruiting effort which is critically important for us. The brochure is on this web site (http://www.baeg.engr.uark.edu).

Please let us know how you can help us! Please do not hesitate to call (479-575-2351), e-mail (lverma@uark.edu) or if you are in the area, drop in for a visit. I would be delighted to pursue this further and discuss our plans for a bright and exciting future.