Foster Agblevor

College of Engineering

Biological Engineering

Dr. Foster Agblevor is a Professor of Biological Engineering at Utah State University (USU) Logan UT, since January 2011, and Director of USTAR Bioenergy Center, Utah State University. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He did postdoctoral work at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus, Honolulu, HI and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO.

Prior to joining USU in 2011, Dr. Agblevor was a Professor of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. He was also a Senior Chemical Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co. before joining Virginia Tech. Some of his awards and recognitions include the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Excellence in Basic Research Award, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and J. William Fulbright Scholar in Technology and Innovation.

His research involves the thermochemical and biochemical conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals. He has several patents and invention disclosures on biomass conversion fuels and chemicals. He is currently working on the fractional catalytic pyrolysis of biomass to produce biochar, chemicals, and biogasoline. He is lead on National Science Foundation project for agricultural residues conversion into high value chemicals; US Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, VTT Technical Research Center, Finland and USU joint collaborative research on in situ catalytic pyrolysis and upgrading of biofuels; US Department of Energy, Virginia Tech, USU collaborative research on biomass/coal gasification research and he is also the lead on SORAM Biomedicine Institute, Korea research on ginseng based chemical production of drugs for therapeutic treatment of cancer. He teaches Downstream Processing Technology in Biological Engineering.