Biosystems engineering professor Sushil Adhikari is Auburn’s 2017 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring recipient.
Three College of Agriculture faculty members have been awarded promotions, and one of the three also has been recognized university-wide for his exemplary support of undergraduate student researchers.
The latter is Sushil Adhikari in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, who not only has advanced to the rank of professor but is the recipient of the 2017 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring as well.
The other two promotions were awarded to Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Charles Chen, who has attained the status of full professor, and, Luxin Wang, who is now associate professor with tenure in the Department of Animal Sciences.
Chen came to Auburn as an associate professor in 2012 from his role as a research geneticist at USDA’s National Peanut Lab in Dawson, Georgia. His expertise is in peanut breeding, genetics and genomics. Wang, too, joined the college in 2012, serving as an assistant professor. A molecular microbiologist, she conducts research on food safety in meat products.
Adhikari, who is in his ninth year at Auburn, has built a research program focused on biomass gasification and pyrolysis, biodiesel production and other forms of bioenergy and serves as associate director of Auburn’s Center of Bioenergy and Bioproducts. Hired in 2008 as an assistant professor, he was promoted to associate professor in 2013.
Adhikari is the third College of Agriculture faculty member to receive the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring since its inception in 2011. Fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic sciences associate professor Alan Wilson was the 2014-15 recipient, and Leonardo De La Fuente, plant pathology associate professor, received the 2015-16 awardee.
The mentoring award was established to recognize a faculty member who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to undergrad research and scholarship and who has a significant impact on the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate students.
