Alumni Profile:McNair Bostick


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McNair Bostick

What does a Biosystems Engineer do?
McNair Bostick Natural Resources &Environment Concentration BS ('97), MS ('99) I am a Ph. D. research student in the Laboratory of Environmental Control Engineering in the Faculty of Horticulture at Chiba University, Japan (http://vert.h.chiba-u.ac.jp/kanko/englishtop.html). I am supported by a Monbusho (Japanese Ministry of Education) scholarship. I would eventually like to enroll in a US university to complete a Ph. D. and have a career in agricultural research and education. My work involves crop modeling in a Closed Transplant Production Research Facility that opened in April, 2000 on campus. This facility is a pilot "plant factory" in which all factors affecting plant growth (light, temperature, humidity, CO2, water and nutrition) are controllable and pest and pathogens are excluded from the growth environment. The main advantage of such a system is that it allows for predictable production of quality plants.


	I also need to measure the leaf area of a transplant canopy. Here I am using an imaging equipment (in a clean room handling area) to non-destructively measure the leaf area of a transplant tray.

Plants in this system are grown in a clean room environment and, after planting, are handled by robots until they are ready to go to the field.

The work I am doing now builds on the background I developed as a BS and MS student at Clemson University. The Biosystems Engineering curriculum provided a good background in the engineering and biological sciences, and I was able to choose electives in a particular interest area---plant science. I was also fortunate to gain applied experience with part-time jobs in the Horticulture Department and as a participant in the co-op program.

The Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering office
is located in 221 McAdams Hall.

Agricultural Biological Engineering Department `
Box 340312, Clemson University
Clemson, S.C. 29634-0312
Phone: (864) 656-3250 -- Fax: (864) 656-0338

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