Rice crops growing in a growth chamber.

Biological & Environmental Engineering

We bring life to engineering

Our unique focus to design and develop processes, products and systems using basic biological, environmental science and engineering tools generates solutions to societal problems involving water, food, energy and public health. Students increasingly need to participate in problem-solving across traditional boundaries. Rapid technological changes are an added challenge, with implications driven by diminishing resources and a growing population. We aim to enable our students to drive innovation as our discipline continues to be transformed by our changing world.

About our department

Welcome to the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Our department is one of the largest of its kind in the country, with a very diverse faculty, staff and student population. We serve three integrated functions: teaching the next generation of undergraduate and graduate students, research on problems in biology and the environment, and public outreach to help society implement new knowledge.

Faculty and students conversing in a lab.
Minglin Ma, associate professor of biological and environmental engineering, working with students in his lab. Credit: Allison Usavage

Explore BEE

Undergraduate research

Improving therapeutics for Type 1 diabetes

Gaby Markle ’26 was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 4 years old. Working with Cornell CALS biological and environmental engineering professor Minglin Ma, Gaby is researching potential treatments using synthetic biology.

Discover synthetic biology at CALS
Play CALS Undergraduate Research Experience: Gaby Markle ’26

News

A mayfly sitting on the surface of water

News

Mayflies accumulate more mercury when selenium is added to polluted water

Researchers found that at low levels of mercury, selenium additions did seem to help mayfly larva from accumulating mercury. But at high mercury levels – the condition in which environmental remediation is most needed – selenium actually made...

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Water
  • Ecosystems
Manoj Karkee Headshot

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Manoj Karkee
Academic focus: Artificial intelligence (AI), automation and robotics in agriculture Research summary: My research program focuses on innovating AI, machine learning and robotics solutions for agricultural applications, aiming to reduce resource...
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Agriculture
Rosa Santomartino Headshot

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Rosa Santomartino
Academic focus: Biotechnologies for sustainable solutions in space and on Earth Research summary: In the coming decades, space exploration will take us beyond Earth’s orbit, demanding highly efficient closed-loop systems to reduce costs and...
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
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