Fueling a winner: Biosystems engineering researcher developing solutions with bioenergy recognized by SEC

Sushil Adhikari had no intention of having a career in academia, let alone researching solutions to some of life’s challenges.

“I just wanted to be an engineer and not study anymore,” he professed.

But plans change.

Nearly 25 years after earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tribhuvan University in his native Nepal, Adhikari is an Alumni Professor and researcher in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at Auburn University.

He’s also director of the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts and, since Feb. 17, the interim associate dean for research for Auburn’s College of Agriculture and interim associate director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES).

The Southeastern Conference (SEC), on Feb. 24, named Adhikari as Auburn’s honoree for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award.

The SEC annually recognizes one faculty member from each of its member institutions who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and scholarship. Recipients are chosen based on their contributions to their field, commitment to students and overall impact on their university.

The conference will proclaim one of the 14 awardees as the SEC Professor of the Year, the highest faculty honor given by the conference, in March.

In good company

Adhikari is understandably proud of the recognition, particularly because this puts him in a class of distinguished colleagues from across campus.

“I never thought that I was going to win this one because of the people who have won this award before,” he admitted.

Auburn's first winner in 2012 was President Christopher B. Roberts, then a professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, about to be dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Biosystems engineering is housed in agriculture but is a part of engineering. The faculty often intersects. When Adhikari came to Auburn in 2008, his department head was Professor Steve Taylor, who started agriculture’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts.

Taylor would move on to serve as engineering’s associate dean for research and eventually step in as interim dean when Roberts became the university president. Taylor then became the senior vice president for research and economic development, overseeing research endeavors across campus. 

Adhikari talks about these colleagues — working with them and filling Taylor’s shoes as center director — as if they are formidable and larger than life. But they share a common thread: impact.

Every role has been an opportunity for each of them to broaden their impact on the lives of students and faculty at Auburn and, with innovative research, the world.

Adhikari stepped into this latest interim gig — Professor Art Appel stepped away from it to be interim dean and interim director of AAES — is simply another chance for Adhikari to make an impact.

Making a difference

It’s something he has been doing since first coming to Auburn.

“Being on faculty gives you the flexibility to focus on your interests. I get to do research and work with students, who grow so much by the time they graduate,” Adhikari said. “For me, it’s about seeing the impact I can have on them.”

The award and his new responsibilities “give me motivation to do more,” he added.

When he isn’t teaching classes, Adhikari is running the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts where he mentors student researchers and conducts his own work. He will teach one less class next semester to accommodate his interim responsibilities.

Adhikari doesn’t look at his new role as a burden. It’s a chance “to make a bigger impact.”

“I have worked with a number of faculty, a lot of younger faculty members and students in my role as center director, and I see that I have made some impact, but now the challenge to myself is, can I make a bigger impact at the college level?” he asked.

“It can be difficult to make big changes as an interim, but sometimes it is easier to make changes when you just plant the seed.”

Leave it to a faculty member in agriculture to make such a reference, but Adhikari did it because it’s easy to understand how an idea can grow and flourish, like a seed, with the right tools and support.

He considers students to be like young saplings, who grow into mighty trees with nourishment from Adhikari. This type of influence — as a teacher, researcher, director and interim any job — is what has kept Adhikari on the Plains all this time.

“Maybe I’m just in the right place at the right time, or maybe it’s just my attitude, but I feel fortunate to be here,” he said. “I have the support of colleagues in the department and around campus. I don't see a need to go anywhere else.”

Adhikari has no desire to frame his degrees and hang them on his office walls. Instead, the stark white walls are covered with plaques and certificates he earned over the years. Many denote his collaborative work.

In 2012, for instance, Adhikari, along with Taylor, Roberts, Fasina and others received the President’s Outstanding Collaborative Units Award during the annual Faculty Awards.

The nature of biosystems engineering, what Adhikari calls a problem-focused discipline, lends itself to multidisciplinary cooperation. But what is biosystems engineering?

Addressing challenges

It can be confusing for two colleges to share biosystems engineering, but Adhikari said it makes sense as “we are engineers, trying to solve the problems related to agriculture.”

A sign hangs from the front of the Corley Building, proclaiming the department is developing solutions to life’s essential challenges: “Food, Water, Energy, Environment and Health.”

If that doesn’t clarify the type of work being done inside, Adhikari says, “we try to say that we solve these big problems related to water, food and fuel.”

While his office neighbor, Associate Professor David Blersch, is looking at algae growth in high-nutrient wastewater, Adhikari is focused on bioenergy, deriving energy like electricity and biofuel from organic materials (biomass), such as plants and wood.

Adhikari, in collaboration with agriculture faculty, is currently using biochar for agriculture uses for improving soil and water health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and even killing cockroaches. Biochar — the result of heating biomass like wood, crop residue and manure — is black (like charcoal), extremely light (like Styrofoam) and resembles finely shredded mulch.

Even in their interim roles, Adhikari and Appel can discuss their common work, as Appel is evaluating the efficacy of biochar for killing cockroaches.

With such work happening in the center, researchers like Adhikari and his graduate students seek campus experts in water, soil and horticulture, to name a few, for assistance.

“You need a multidisciplinary approach to solving these problems because these problems are complex,” said Adhikari.

When it comes to biochar, Adhikari believes researchers, like himself, are finding answers to multiple issues. For instance, biochar holds carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years, preventing its release into the atmosphere. 

“At the same time, you can improve soil properties with it,” he said. “Capture some of the nutrients from runoff, and you’re looking at other benefits to the ecosystem.”

It boils down to engineering the biochar properties differently to serve unique needs.

Biochar designed by Adhikari's team to help farmers minimize the effects of drought will be engineered differently than the team creating biochar to capture excess phosphorus in the soil and slowly release it to benefit plant growth.

Talk about impact.

Past Auburn SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners

2024, Skip Bartol, College of Veterinary Medicine

2023, Shiwen Mao, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering 

2022, Karen McNeal, College of Sciences and Mathematics

2021, Mona El-Sheikh, College of Human Sciences            

2020, Doug Martin, College of Veterinary Medicine

2019, Rex Dunham, College of Agriculture

2018, David Ketchen, Raymond J. Harbert College of Business

2017, James Barth, Raymond J. Harbert College of Business

2016, Hanqin Tian, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment

2015, Bruce Tatarchuk, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

2014, Geoffrey Hill, College of Sciences and Mathematics

2013, Pradeep Lall, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

2012, Christopher B. Roberts, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering