Rate My Professor Mari Chinn

Mari Chinn serves as Professor and Department Head of the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering department at Oklahoma State University. She holds a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of California, Davis (1998), an M.S. in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Kentucky (2000), and a Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Kentucky (2003). Chinn commenced her academic career in 2003 at North Carolina State University in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, where she taught and conducted research for 18 years. During this period, she secured over $11 million in research funding and grants, with $8.2 million as lead principal investigator, and published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles.

At Oklahoma State University, since January 2021, she leads the department jointly under the Ferguson College of Agriculture and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. Additional roles include Director of the Biobased Products and Energy Center (BioPEC) and Associate Director of the South Central Sun Grant Center. Her research focuses on integrated biomass conversion systems and fermentation, including bioenergy crops like miscanthus and sweetpotatoes, lignocellulosic conversion, bioprocess engineering, and microbial fermentation for biofuel production. Notable publications encompass "Water use and radiation balance of miscanthus and corn on marginal land in the coastal plain region of North Carolina" (GCB Bioenergy, 2024), "Biomass yields, reproductive fertility, compositional analysis, and genetic diversity of newly developed triploid giant miscanthus hybrids" (GCB Bioenergy, 2024), and "Application of raw industrial sweetpotato hydrolysates for butanol production by Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052" (Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, 2024). Chinn is an ELATES Fellow (Class of 2024-2025) and recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is the first woman and first person of color to head the department.