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

headshot of jacqueline gerson

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Jacqueline Gerson
Acacemic focus: Biogeochemistry, contaminant fate and transport Lab website: gersonlab.weebly.com Research summary: I am a watershed biogeochemist. I study how anthropogenic activities have altered the cycling of nutrients and contaminants...
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island at sunrise

News

Cornell experts to offer solutions at Climate Week NYC

Climate Week NYC will get a Big Red tint as Cornell researchers suggest carbon solutions for the travel industry, discuss agricultural methane and participate in a nuclear energy conference.

  • Climate Change
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Environment
A bumblebee on campus

News

Bee antidote to deadly pesticides shows promise

An antidote to pesticide poisoning in bees shows promising early results in tests done with common eastern bumblebees.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Department of Entomology
  • Agriculture
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