FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Terry Howell Jr. sees biological and agricultural engineering as a hub for bridging the engineering needs of agricultural sciences and natural resource disciplines to sustainably feed the growing world population.

As the new biological and agricultural engineering department head, Howell brings 25 years of food industry and university research experience. He succeeds Lalit Verma as department head on Aug. 1. 

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering includes research and extension programs of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and research and academic programs of the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas.

"Efficiency and sustainability are at the heart of what agricultural and biological engineers do," Howell said. "As a societal mission, we're trying to make sure we can feed the growing population, have enough clean water to use and consume for that growing population while making sure energy is abundant, and air and other natural resources provide for a high quality of life."

Howell said biological and agricultural engineers are uniquely trained to think about increasing productivity and reducing waste by using byproducts, whether in row crops or animal production.

"You put those two things together, and it makes for a pretty big playground for engineers, and there's a lot of opportunity and need there," Howell said. "For students, I think they resonate very positively with that. They can see themselves contributing to society in meaningful ways."

And that excites Howell about his new role as department head for biological and agricultural engineering. He sees it as a chance to expose the next generation of students to a career with an array of possibilities.

"I think we have a great faculty in place in Arkansas, and we're going to continue to build them, and hopefully, we're going to be able to create a workforce for the future that will change the world," Howell said. "There is a lot of opportunity for biological and agricultural engineers because it can be a bridge between agriculture, other natural resource sciences, and other branches of engineering. We can speak the language of both groups and hopefully advance the sciences in engineering in those spaces."

As the son of an agricultural engineer who specialized in irrigation innovation for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Howell was exposed to the profession at a young age. He earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in agricultural engineering from Texas A&M University, his father's alma mater, before gaining his doctorate in food engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999.

Howell was a research assistant professor with the University of Arkansas System food science department from 1999 to 2002 and has maintained ties over the course of his career with faculty on professional society projects. For example, Howell and Jeyam Subbiah, professor and head of the University of Arkansas System food science department, have collaborated on several team-based, multi-institution proposals. Subbiah was a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 2004 to 2019. Howell returns to Arkansas after serving for more than five years as executive director of the Nebraska Food Processing Center, a division of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources.

"Nebraska and Arkansas have found many opportunities to connect on shared opportunities to advance agricultural research," Howell said.

In Nebraska, most of Howell's efforts in the past few years have been focused on economic development projects. He worked with the Nebraska Innovation Campus to develop a co-working space for food technology startups. These partnering companies, now over 10, have leveraged state and other funding sources for about $1 million to support their research and development efforts, he said. The companies employ over 20 people, continue to invest in more research, and are contributing to the Nebraska innovation ecosystem, Howell added.

Howell intends to pursue economic growth in Arkansas as well by leveraging biological and agricultural engineering technology innovations. He said that requires connecting the Division of Agriculture, state programs, and university resources with student, faculty, staff and industry stakeholders.

"With precision agriculture, advanced bioprocessing, and so many other areas of research in the department, biological and agricultural engineering is a natural fit for entrepreneurial growth and driving the economy of Arkansas," Howell said.

Prior to his time with the Nebraska Food Processing Center, Howell worked for McKee Foods Corp., the parent company of Little Debbie and Sunbelt Bakery Brands, in Collegedale, Tennessee, for nearly 16 years, rising from senior food scientist to senior manager for product development. 

Kim Needy, professor and dean of the College of Engineering, said the national search for Verma's successor was competitive, and "Howell rose to the top with the perfect combination of experience, national reputation and energy to lead the department forward in a significant way."

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Howell back to Arkansas as head of the biological and agricultural engineering department," said Jean-François Meullenet, director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and senior associate vice president for agriculture-research. "Terry brings a unique combination of industry and academic experience, which will help drive research collaborations and innovation for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the University of Arkansas System as a whole."

Bob Scott, senior associate vice president for agriculture-extension and director of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, said Howell has a "real understanding about extension and the needs for agricultural engineering going into the future and I look forward to working with him."

The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service are the research and outreach arms of the Division of Agriculture.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. 

About the Division of Agriculture: The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation's historic land grant education system. The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses. The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.