Biological Engineering: What It Means to Me

1. History. Although the history of BE goes back farther than this (Johnson, 2006), Pat Hassler changed the name of the NC State program to Biological and Agricultural Agricultural Engineering in 1965. Bill Fox and Jim Anderson followed at Mississippi State in 1967, and, together with Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, were the first two accredited BE programs. There were many in ASABE who championed BE, among them Norm Scott, who, as IBE President in 2000 pushed for a common definition of BE, that, by consensus, became: “BE is the biology-based engineering discipline that integrates life sciences with engineering in the advancement and application of fundamental concepts of biological systems from molecular to ecosystem levels.” My own BE efforts were more concentrated outside of ASABE, in The Alliance for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Society for Engineering Education.