As one of the earliest-established departments in HFU, the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering is a key department in cooperation with Lower Saxony of Germany. Currently, it provides one master program in Environmental Engineering and five undergraduate specialties, i.e., Bioengineering, Environmental Engineering, Biotechnology, Food Science and Technology, and Food Quality and Safety.Among the specialties, Bioengineering is a national characteristic specialty while Microbiology a key provincial discipline and Environmental Engineering a pilot major of Provincial Excellence Engineer Program.
The department has a staff of 47, including 12 professors, 9 associate professors, 3 senior laboratory instructors, 4 German visiting professors and 5 domestic visiting professors. Full-time students total up to 1,214, including 1,163 undergraduate students and 51 graduate students.
In the pastfive years(2011-2015), the department has made considerable achievements in the field：Natural Science Research Foundation of China(2 programs); Science and Technology Research of Anhui (3programs);Natural Science Foundation of Anhui(3programs); Natural Science Research Project of Anhui(9key projects and 5 general projects); Bureau of Foreign Experts of Anhui (1project) and Soft Science Research of Hefei(1 project).Over10national invention patents have been registered. And the research team won one second and two third provincial-level Science and Technology Award. In the past five years, over 152 academic papers have been published, including 35 in SCI, ET or ISTP.
The department makes great efforts to promote the international cooperation and exchange. In 2003, it applied for the EU-Asia Link Project jointly with the colleges and universities from Germany, Austria and Thailand. In 2005, together with Professor Dr. Nelles, it applied for German Technology Cooperation/ Center of German International Exchange and Development (GTZ/CIM), and Center of German Academic Exchange,etc.This can be regarded as the first attempt of the EU's ambitious plan of promoting sustainable resource management education in China. Since 2006, it has successfully hosted six international conferences on Environmental Technology and Knowledge Transfer in Asia and Europe, which has exerted an impressive academic influence. On Oct. 30, 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang tasted the black beer produced by the students on their visit to HFU.