Ph.D. and M.S. in Agricultural Engineering. Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Cornell University. Travel Grant (1989) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Paper Award for the top papers of engineering merit (1988) from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, Award of Excellence for the best Ph.D. dissertation (1986) from the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, National Merit Scholarship (1974) Government of India.

Research Interests:

Fundamental Studies of Heat and Mass Transport in Food Processing
Thermal and Electromagnetic Studies of Microwave Heating of Foods
Food as a Porous Media: Mechanisms of Moisture and Other Transport
Thermal Stresses During Rapid Freezing of Biomaterials and Foods

Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) is at the focus of three great challenges facing humanity in the 21st century:

Protecting or remediating the world's natural resources, including water, soil, air, energy, and biodiversity.
Developing engineering systems that monitor, replace, or intervene in the function and operation of living organisms.
Ensuring an adequate and safe food supply in an era of expanding world population.
Biological and environmental engineers solve problems related to nonpoint source pollution, such as movement of pathogens and chemicals through watersheds, soil, and underground aquifers. They design processes and equipment for the production, storage, and processing of food and fiber; for the assessment of food quality and safety; and for the expanding use of biological products. And they are involved in the development and application of technologies to diagnose diseases, protect living organisms from hazardous conditions, and improve human and animal health.

As a field, biological and environmental engineering is rapidly evolving with advancements in biological sensors, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and molecular biology. New methods of computation are being used to simulate the dynamics of systems as small as the membrane of a cell, as large as an entire ecosystem, and as complex as the human genome.