BAE Faculty recognized by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
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EmailThe Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) at Michigan State University (MSU) has multiple recognitions from the ASABE in 2022.
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) is an international professional society devoted to agricultural and biological engineering. Its mission is to promote engineering in food, water, energy, fiber, and the environment. ASABE has members in more than 100 countries.
The Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) at Michigan State University (MSU) has multiple recognitions from the ASABE in 2022.
- Bradley Marks, BAE Professor, and Chair, is recognized as an ASABE Fellow.
- Ehsan Ghane, BAE Extension, is the recipient of the 2022 Larry W. Turner Young Extension Professional Award and the 2022 Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award
- Tim Harrigan, BAE Associate Professor is receiving the 2022 Sukup Global Food Security Award
Bradley Marks, Ph.D. has established an international reputation for his interdisciplinary research focused on the microbial safety of ready-to-eat food products. His team is currently developing ways to improve food safety of fresh produce for immunocompromised people.
An engineer by training, Marks has expanded his expertise to food microbiology and predictive modeling to reduce foodborne disease outbreaks linked to meats, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and low-moisture foods. His research informs standards used by federal and state regulators in the food processing industry. His leadership roles have included the MSU Food Safety Group, serving as a Food Fellow at MSU and chairing the program committee for the International Association for Food Protection. He has also served in advisory capacities for the International Life Science Institute, the Almond Board of California and the Food Protection and Defense Institute. Marks teaches BAE undergraduate courses, mentors undergraduate and graduate students, and led the biosystems engineering accreditation process for 16 years. In addition to receiving teaching awards at the college, university, and national level, he received the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award from MSU in 2017.
Ehsan Ghane, Ph.D. has made a significant impact within the field of drainage through his extension career. He has published 11 peer-reviewed extension bulletins and developed six educational videos regarding agricultural drainage. He has created eight drainage design tools, available on the Michigan State University drainage website, to help stakeholders make informed drainage design decisions (www.egr.msu.edu/bae/water/drainage/). This highly utilized drainage website is the first of its kind in Michigan, as Michigan has not had a drainage extension specialist in more than 20 years. Ghane also developed Michigan's first Annual Drainage Design Workshop to teach drainage design using these tools and hands-on exercises. While the originally scheduled design workshop was canceled in 2021, he organized a virtual Drainage Tools Workshop to ensure that those stakeholders in need of drainage tools education were still able to learn about them.
Tim Harrigan, Ph.D. leads integrated applied research, teaching, and Extension programs in mitigating adverse farming system impacts on the environment and building a sustainable agroecosystem. Areas of significant involvement include manure land application, tillage, planting, forage harvesting and handling, machinery management, and precision agriculture. Recent international work in Africa has been developing appropriate scale mechanization in synchrony with local cropping systems to reclaim soil health and restore the natural productivity of cropland. He has authored thirty-five peer-reviewed articles, numerous extension bulletins and fact sheets, more than 300 presentations at county and regional field days and related activities, and more than 40 out-of-state, national, and international invited talks. Dr. Harrigan is a long-time member of ASABE and previously a machinery division associate editor for ASABE journals, currently an Executive Board member and past president of the Michigan Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, and an Executive Board member and past president of Tillers International, Scotts, MI.
