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

Microbes sitting on top of blue, orange and yellow colored squares

News

dean ben houlton standing on the ag quad

News

Houlton: Invest in ag research to fight climate change

Benjamin Z. Houlton, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, testified June 15 to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee on the role of climate research in supporting agricultural resiliency.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
Lou Walcer (McGovern Center), left, Carrianne Fairbarne (Ava Labs), Hakim Weatherspoon (Exotanium), Ted Eveleth (Halomine), Stéphane Corgié (Zymtronix), John Pena (Sonder Research X) and Bob Scharf (Praxis Center) at the June 7 graduation event at Weill Hall.

News

Five companies ‘graduate’ from Cornell incubators

As the pandemic pomp and COVID circumstances dissipate, Cornell’s McGovern Center and Praxis Center incubators graduated five startups, putting them on the road to success.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
Student walks in front of campus building

News

Inaugural Turner Fellows advance global food security
Eight graduate students from 1890 land grant institutions across the United States have been selected as part of the inaugural cohort of Thomas Wyatt Turner Fellows at Cornell University. Representing a wide range of research specialties...
  • Animal Science
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
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