UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Roy Young, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Clemson University since 1984, has been named professor and head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences, effective July 1.
"Dr. Young comes to Penn State with superb credentials as a scholar and engineer," says Dean Robert Steele. "His experience spanning the industrial sector to the academic sector provides him with the ideal background to take this important leadership position in the college."
At Clemson, Young taught three undergraduate courses and a graduate course on systems engineering. His research focuses on the mechanization of plant micropropagation. He also has researched liquid and plastic film color filters as greenhouse covers for the control of plant morphology.
His work has resulted in five patents, including three for automated systems for plant propagation. His most recent patent, which automates the process by which plant tissue cultures are transferred from the laboratory to greenhouses and also helps acclimate the plant to its new environment, has been commercially developed by Southern Sun Propagation Systems Inc., in Hodges, S.C. The commercial name for the system is the Acclimatron.
Young has extensive academic and industrial experience. Before coming to Clemson, he worked from 1978 to 1984 as a section manager of horticultural engineering in the Silvicultural Engineering Department of the Weyerhaeuser Company in Tacoma, Wash. At Weyerhaeuser, he directed the research and development of mechanized equipment to handle ornamental plants in greenhouses and container nurseries. He also was an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at Auburn University from 1972 to 1978. At Auburn, he studied vehicle guidance and controlled traffic to reduce soil compaction.
In addition, Young worked as a research engineer at North Carolina State University in the summer of 1970, and was a scientific guest at the Max-Planck Institute in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, in the summer of 1969.
Young earned his B.S. in biological and agricultural engineering from North Carolina State University in 1966, returning to the university for his Ph.D. in biological and agricultural engineering, which he earned in 1972. He received his M.S. in agricultural engineering from Iowa State University in 1968 and has been a registered professional engineer since 1976.
Young was named a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) in 1994. Among his numerous other honors are the ASAE President's Citation in 1989 and ASAE Technical Paper Awards in 1986 and 1995. He also has published more than 40 articles in such professional journals as Agricultural Engineering, American Nurseryman, HortScience and the Journal of Environmental Horticulture.
He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, American Society of Engineering Educators, the Institute of Biological Engineering and the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. He has served on many state, regional and national committees for ASAE as well. He is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Environmental Horticulture and is an associate editor for the emerging areas division of ASAE.
He also is a member of many professional organizations, including Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Zeta.
Young's wife, Ann, has worked as a laboratory technician and a computer education teacher. The couple has two sons, Adam, a graduate student in art history at the University of Pittsburgh; Hugh, who will be a freshman at Penn State this year; and Andrea, who will enter high school this year.
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Contacts: John Wall jtw3@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax