Iowa State’s Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ISU ABE) is a winner of the 2018 Iowa State University Alumni Association Impact Award, honoring “individuals, businesses, organizations, or units whose programs or accomplishments brought broad recognition to the university and increased the involvement of ISU constituents.”
ABE’s Impact Award citation reads:
“Since 1906, Iowa State University’s program in agricultural engineering has been one of the nation’s most excellent. And today, a proud academic tradition has grown into a sparkling gem in the Iowa State crown – a Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering that is recognized as the best in the U.S. for both undergraduate and graduate students, top nationally in research expenditures, and top globally for its facilities.
In the past 20 years, the ISU Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering has tripled in size. In the past five years alone, undergraduate enrollment has increased by 37 percent, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded has increased by 80 percent, and the faculty size has increased by 21 percent.
Led by department chair Steven Mickelson (’82 ag engr, MS ’84, PhD ’91), who has been presented with the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ Gilley Award for Academic Leadership, the department has earned a No. 1 ranking from US News and World Report. It was the first Iowa State University academic program ever to achieve a top ranking from US News.
The department’s $74 million facilities in Elings Hall and Sukup Hall were completed in 2014. The sprawling complex is designed to develop international partnerships, improve agriculture and animal production systems, enhance biorenewable fuel production and harvesting, and process biological components to produce energy. And now, thanks to donations through the Iowa State University Foundation, the department is poised to construct a new Feed Mill and Grain Sciences Center, as well as an Off-Road Vehicle Dynamometer Teaching and Research Facility.
The ISU Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering is truly making the world a healthier place, with a mission dedicated to improving access to food and better managing natural resources worldwide.”