David Britt is an Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering. His research interests focus on surface chemistry, interfacial water structure (hydration layers) and associated surface potential of membranes and biomaterials as related to protein absorption and biofilm formation. Recent projects include: Development of functionalized membranes to recognize and report target molecule binding and advanced scanning probe methods to map membrane electric surface potential on nanometer size scales with the long-term goal of characterizing cell membrane domains (lipid rafts) having putative cell-signaling roles.

Conly Hansen is a Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence for Profitable Uses of Agricultural Byproducts in the College of Engineering at Utah State University. He teaches courses in fundamentals of food processing and an advanced course in food engineering. His research centers on food processing equipment and processes, particularly processes that deal with agricultural waste management. He has two key inventions: high pressure injection (HPI) and the induced blanket reactor (IBR). Dr. Hansen has co-authored two books and visited 11 foreign countries for professionally related work. He was Chair of the Food and Process Engineering Institute in 1997-98.

Robert Hill is a Professor in the Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department and USU Extension Irrigation Specialist for Utah. In addition to Extension responsibilities, he is currently conducting field plot pasture water use and yield research in Northern Utah. He is an author of numerous Extension fact sheets and over 90 crop water use and irrigation-related technical publications. He is interested in irrigation delivery and conveyance systems operation; hydrologic, crop yield and irrigation scheduling models; and river basin and state-wide crop water requirements. He has provided nearly 30 technical assistance TDYs in 14 countries, most recently in the Dominican Republic, Egypt, and Armenia. He consults as an expert witness in Western US water rights and irrigation-related cases.

Soonjo Kwon is an Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering. His research interests focus on pulmonary vascular remodeling in bronchial asthma, enhanced wound healing and airway epithelial cell-based biosensors. Recent projects include: Modulation of intracellular pathways and cell-cell communication by lung mechanical forces (stress, strain, and shear stress). A better understanding of the mechanisms by which lung cells transduce physical forces into biochemical and biological signals is importance for identifying targets for the treatment and prevention of mechanical force-related disorders. Our in vitro co-culture system of airway can also be used for understanding and assessment of the possible health risks associated with air pollutants and small particulate matter (PM10).

Joan McLean is a Research Associate Professor in Biological and Irrigation Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. Her research interests have focused on the fate and behavior of chemical pollutants in the soil environment, with emphasis on heavy metals, pesticides, and chlorinated solvents. Curent research areas include the development of bacterial biosensors for determing biosavailable metals in soil and water, evaluating microbial reduction of iron containing minerals in regulating TCE dechlorination, and hyperventilation of metal contaminated soils.

Coming soon!

Gary Merkley is an Professor of Biological and Irrigation Engineering. His research interests have focused on calibration of open-channel structures for flow measurement, mathematical models of open-channel hydraulics, irrigation system operation and maintenance, irrigation management transfer, and surface irrigation management. Recent projects have included: determination of surface velocity coefficients for the float method, non-hydrostatic flow conditions in Cutthroat flumes, mathematical modeling of unsteady hydraulics in branching canal systems, and management of fertilizer application through furrow irrigation.

Christopher Neale is a Professor of Biological and Irrigation Engineering and Director of the Remote Sensing Services Laboratory. His research interests are in developing remote sensing applications in hydrology, irrigated agriculture, and for monitoring natural resources. He has developed a low-cost airborne remote sensing system that has been recently used to map spatially distributed energy balance terms and evaporates of riparian and agricultural vegetation. His recent projects include the mapping and monitoring of all irrigated agriculture in the Dominican Republic using aerial photography and remote sensing, developing a cadastre of all irrigation water users in a GIS environment.

Richard Peralta is a Professor of Biological and Irrigation Engineering and Director of the Utah State Research Foundation�s Water Dynamics Laboratory. He is an expert at using formal mathematical optimization to solve water and environmental management problems. He has led development of deterministic and stochastic simulation / optimization (S/O) models for a wide range of physical problems. Selected optimization examples include: detailed vadose zone contaminant transport control; dynamic stream-acquifer conjunctive use; large-scale long-term sustained yield conjunctive water resources planning; and groundwater contamination remediation by pump-and-treat and enhanced bioremediation. Many of his developed optimal designs have been constructed, all operating successfully.

Judy Sims is a Research Associate Professor affiliated with the Department of Biological and Irrigation Engineering and the Utah Water Research laboratory. Her area of interest is in soil-based waste treatment, including remediation of soils contaminated with hazardous wastes as well as land treatment systems for wastewater. She is currently serving as coordinator of the Utah On-Site Wastewater Treatment Training Program and is overseeing training requirements for the State of Utah Department of Environmental Quality certification program for on-site wastewater professionals.

Ronald Sims is Professor and Head of the Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department. Dr. Sims teaches graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in biochemical engineering and hazardous waste management. His research has been published in over 55 refereed journal publications, and in 12 chapters in books. He has been substantially involved in the US EPA programs in Superfund and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for approximately 20 years. Dr. Sims is recipient of the Utah Governor�s Medal for Science and Technology, Union Carbide Corporation recognition of research excellence, and is co-chair of the Landfarming Panel for the Biannual International Conference on In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation.

Darwin Sorensen is a Research Professor of Biological and Irrigation Engineering and in Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests have focused on the microbial ecology of biodegradation and bioremediation. Recent projects have included: biodegradation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in land-based treatment systems, reductive dehalogenation of trichloroethene in contaminated aquifers, source water protection assessments, and nitrate contamination susceptibility assessments for shallow aquifers.

Timothy Taylor is a Principal Lecturer of Biological Engineering. His recent research has focused on cellular physical property changes to plant cells grown in suspension culture with processing. He teaches classes in the areas of engineering qualification of biological processes and biological engineering design.

Sridhar Viamajala is an Assistant Professor in Biological and Irrigation Engineering. His research interests are in the areas of bioprocess engineering for production of biofuels. He is a Utah Science and Technology Research (USTAR) faculty and is currently involved in projects related to kinetics, reactor design, scale-up and downstream processing for developing biogas and biodiesel technologies. His other research interests include chemical and enzymatic treatment of lignocellulosics for ethanol and other bioproducts, bioremediation of heavy metal and organic pollutants and applications of extremophilic organisms/enzymes in biotechnology.

Wynn Walker is a Professor of Biological and Irrigation Engineering and Associate Dean for the College of Engineering. His specializations include the design, simulation, and evaluation of surface irrigation systems as well as introduction of computer-oriented training programs to irrigation agencies and projects in the third world. He has developed a comprehensive software package for optimizing surface irrigation management which is being produced for the National Engineering Handbook by the US Department of Agriculture. He has directed international projects in Egypt, Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, and the Dominican Republic.

Jixun Zhan is an Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering. His research interests focus on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Current research efforts lie in the interface of three areas: biology, chemistry, and engineering, including discovery and identification of bioactive natural products, biosynthetic mechanisms of pharmaceutically important compounds, characterization and development of biocatalysts for structural modification, as well as improvement of useful enzymes using protein engineering approaches. He also works on combinatorial biosynthesis of novel biologically significant compounds for drug discovery.

Anhong Zhou is an assistant professor of Biological Engineering. His research interests focus on the development of electrochemical biosensors and their applications in environmental monitoring, biomedical analysis, and food safety, with an emphasis on the use of biomolecular assembly of nanostructured materials. He is also interested in the design and fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (Bio-MEMS) and applying these systems in the investigation of cell adhesion behaviors of cardiovascular and nerve cell on structurally defined substrate.