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

Sunny Jung (left) places a tomato in a prototype bubbler for cleaning produce while Yany Lin films the experiment with a camera.

News

Tiny bubbles, sound waves clean produce safely and effectively

A bubble bath with a constant acoustic sound in the water may be the best chemical-free, gentle method for cleaning agricultural produce.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
Yicong Fu, mechanical engineering doctoral student, injects dye into his custom-built, bio-inspired thermal dispenser to observe how particles disperse.

News

Fish gill-inspired panels reveal path to efficient thermal mixing

Researchers have developed a bio-inspired approach to mixing heat and molecules in fluids – findings that could inform future biomedical devices, heat exchangers and soft robotics.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
electron

News

Proteins organize for extracellular electron transfer

Researchers discovered electron transfer in electroactive bacteria is mediated by CymA proteins’ ability to synchronize and form a biomolecular condensate in the cell’s inner membrane.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
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