Alumni Awards
2023 Alumni Honors
Keith G. Tinsley, B.S., 1989 Agricultural Engineering
Keith G. Tinsey facilitates production and customer supply for chipping potatoes for Black Gold Farms locations in Indiana, Michigan, and North Dakota. He has a broad background in applied engineering for farming and agricultural systems. He is recognized for his expertise in harvest, post-harvest handling, storing, shipping, transportation, and utilization of potatoes.
From humble beginnings in 4-H and FFA on the family dairy farm in Huron County, Michigan, to a national agricultural leader and the presidency of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), Mr. Tinsey has excelled in his profession while developing diverse and cross cutting relationships in order to advance opportunities for students and others in agriculture.
His passion for operational excellence in farming extended and optimized potato storage that led to significant additional business and food waste reduction for Michigan based Walther Farms and North Dakota based Black Gold Farms.
He is driven to build talented teams and give back through ASABE and agricultural and biological engineering departments, where he mentors and recruits students. His skills in innovation led to a collaboration with Michigan Agri-Business Association to develop an AE50 award-winning agricultural GIS mapping tool
His leadership led to an extended potato storage season and brought more potato volume to Michigan for sale in May/June/July and away from southern states, like Florida. He was instrumental in helping Better Made Potato Chips in Detroit be able to source Michigan potatoes year around. He actively supports agricultural policy at state and national levels through the Potato Growers of Michigan and the National Potato Council and through the promotion of Michigan potatoes through the Michigan Potato Industry Commission and the National Potato Council.
Among his many connections to MSU, he is past director of the Michigan Agricultural Electric Council and directed outreach to improve farm-level electrical wiring and safety. He also advanced relationships between utility companies and the agricultural industry. He is a former engineering design instructor, where he taught an engineering design capstone course for graduating Spartan seniors.
Established in 2004, the BAE Distinguished Alumni Award is given to an alumnus or alumna who has distinguished himself/herself as a leader in the biological/agricultural engineering profession through professional contributions, public service, and personal accomplishments. Alumni who graduated at least 10 years ago with an undergraduate and/or graduate degree are considered.
2022 Alumni Honors
Essex E. Finney, Jr., Ph.D., Agricultural Engineering 1963, The accolades that praise the many accomplishments of Essex E. Finney Jr. date back to the 1960s.
Now retired and living in Bowie, Maryland, Essex served as the Associate Administrator, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and was Acting Administrator in 1993-94. ARS is the chief research agency for USDA.
He was also a senior policy analyst in Washington, D.C., in the Office of the Science Advisor to the President in 1980-81. He is the past recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award.
Essex was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1994 for his research on the engineering properties of fruits and vegetables and his work developing commercial instruments. His administrative leadership skills were also cited.
He was raised in Powhatan, Virginia, and received his bachelor’s degree with honors in agricultural engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He continued his education with a master’s degree at Pennsylvania State University and earned a Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 1963. He was a Fellow of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1973-74.
In the early years, he was interested in advancing instrumentation and was able to work in an ARC instrumentation research lab as a research agricultural engineer starting in 1965. His initial research focus was on drying cereal grains.
During many years of service, he advanced through various ARC leadership roles. Among them, he was responsible for ARC programs in Beltsville, Maryland, the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, and the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE), and a member of the Institute of Food Technologists and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Association. He was particularly active in the ASAE Food Engineering Division Research Committee, the ASAE Foundation Trustees, and the Board of Directors.
Established in 2004, the BAE Distinguished Alumni Award is given to an alumnus or alumna who has distinguished himself/herself as a leader in the biological/agricultural engineering profession through professional contributions, public service, and personal accomplishments. Alumni who have graduated at least ten years ago with an undergraduate and/or graduate degree are considered.
2021 Alumni Honors
Todd Forbush, BS 1987, MS 1989, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2021 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Todd D. Forbush is a recognized expert on potato storage and often makes presentations on the topic in the U.S. and internationally. He is committed to getting produce to the plates of people who need the nutrition, while making sure the produce is not spoiled by pathogens on the path from the field to the plate.
Forbush received his master's degree from MSU in agricultural engineering in 1989. While at MSU, he studied the effects of ventilation on the process quality of chip potatoes out of storage under the watchful eyes of the late Burt Cargill and Roger Brook.
Since graduation, he has applied his knowledge and experiences to the commercial potato storage industry at Techmark, Inc. A popular speaker, his list of presentations and webinars in 2021 alone includes the World Potato Congress, Manitoba Potato Growers, Michigan Potato Growers and Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference.
He is the current president of the Michigan Section of The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Forbush said he loves working for produce farmers in Michigan and around the world. “These men and women invest themselves and their finances in producing healthy fruits and vegetables for our consumption.”
He is an active member of the Williamston Free Methodist Church, where he serves as a Children's Sunday School Teacher and member of the nominations committee.
He is also an avid outdoorsman, who loves to hunt and fish for about anything that runs, flies or swims. He and his family enjoy many meals from these harvests.
He and his wife, Kristen, live in Laingsburg, Michigan. They have three children, Tyler, Taylor, and Morgan, and four grandchildren.
2020 Alumni Honors
Dr. Alioune Fall, PhD 1997, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2020 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Alioune Fall is the director general of the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA) and has spent a career working to provide sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for active and healthy lives. His areas of specialization are the agricultural technology and innovation management system (modeling, artificial intelligence), agricultural research management, research evaluation, post-harvest technology, and mechanization.
Dr. Fall's research career spans 35 years. He joined ISRA in 1984 as a researcher in the Casamance region (southern Senegal). After obtaining his doctorate, he was moved to the National Agronomy Research Center (CNRA) of Bambey, where he was appointed national coordinator of the post-harvest technology program. From 2000 to 2008, Dr. Fall was director of the Saint-Louis Regional Center for Agricultural Research. In 2002, he became the national research coordinator on irrigated systems of CORAF, an international non-profit association working to enhance prosperity, food, and nutrition security in west and central Africa.
He helped negotiate the new ISRA establishment regulations with the Government of Senegal and played a key role in decompartmentalizing research at the national and international levels. Dr. Fall chaired the executive group from 2014 to 2016.
His other leadership roles include scientific director of ISRA from 2008 to 2013 and chairman of the CORAF board from 2014 to 2018. Since August 2016, he has been a member of the scientific council of the French Research Center CIRAD and was appointed board chairman in February 2018, by order of the French Minister for Agriculture. He is president of the Korea-Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative, which brings together 23 African countries, in bilateral cooperation with South Korea, and president of the Senegalese Association of Agricultural Engineers (ASIA).
Dr. Fall was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite agricole de France in 2017 and Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Lion du Sénégal in 2018.
2019 Alumni Honors
Scott Piggott, BS 1998, MS 2010, Biosystems Engineering, was awarded the 2019 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Scott Piggott was hired as Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Farm Bureau in April of 2012. Michigan Farm Bureau is the state's largest general farm organization with over 213,000 members. As CEO, Scott is responsible for planning, managing and supervising all ongoing services and programs provided by Farm Bureau for members.
Scott began his career with Michigan Farm Bureau in 2000 as the Natural Resources and Right to Farm Specialist and became manager of the newly created Agricultural Ecology Department in 2002 where his responsibilities included all environmental issues that impact agriculture. In his service, Scott served on over 20 boards and committees including co-chairmanship of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (serving alongside several MSU leaders as co-chair for 12 years) and the Michigan Groundwater Conservation Advisory Council. Scott represented Great Lakes Basin agriculture in the development of the Great Lakes Compact that was eventually codified in state and federal law. Scott has been an invited fellow for environmental concerns at Michigan State University, University of Michigan and the University of Toronto. Scott has served MSU in leadership and advisory capacities for several endowed chair searches, curriculum reviews and Right to Farm practice standard committees. Scott currently serves on the MSU Institute of Water Resources Advisory Team.
In his service as CEO, Scott has participated in transition teams during Michigan Administration changes and continues to serve as a director for several non-profits and financial institutions.
Scott earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University and received the 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award from the MSU Agricultural Engineering Department. Scott farms with his family near Fowler with his wife Donna and four children Danielle, Kaitlin, Anthony and Andrew.
2018 Alumni Honors
Brad Borgman, BS '79, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2018 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Brad Borgman is the Vice President of Engineering for the TWT Group, where he leads the design and development of numerous rides and attractions for the theme park industry. He holds a BSAE in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University. Prior to working in the theme park industry, Brad was Chief Engineer of R&D for Sunkist, receiving 4 patents for his work developing a robotic packing machine as well as optically inspecting fruit by color, size and defects.
After graduating from MSU in 1979, Brad became a project engineer for Ford's Tractor division in Troy, Michigan where he focused on testing and instrumenting their Tractor development. His interest in Electrical Engineering brought him back to MSU where he was soon recruited to join Sunkist in California. Brad was instrumental in expanding their business internationally and travelled to Israel, Sicily, Spain, England and Morocco. Brad received special merit recognition from the Chairman of the Board of Sunkist for his patents and the resulting growth of their market.
After 7 years at Sunkist, Brad joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 1988, and began his journey developing thrill rides and attractions for theme parks around the world. At Disney, first as a Ride Engineer, Brad was responsible for directing the analysis, design, full-scale prototype and final production of a new generation ride vehicle for the Indiana Jones attraction. Later, as Principal Ride Systems Engineer, Brad led teams of engineers designing and fabricating rides for Disney attractions around the world.
Brad started his own international consulting business in 1995 and has expanded his work on rides for multiple clients such as Universal Studios, Disney Imagineering, DreamWorks, Sony and Warner Bros. In addition, Brad has diversified into special engineering projects for Apple Retail flagship stores, attractions on cruise ships, and specialty museum projects, including the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, (MSI), and the NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Brad lives in Seattle and enjoys unicycling, hiking, biking and international adventures with his wife, Sue. They have 2 happy dogs that enjoy their agility training and swimming in Lake Washington.
Read more: https://www.egr.msu.edu/news/2018/05/01/alumni-awards-2018
2017 Alumni Honors
Dr. Larry P. Walker, MS '75 and PhD '78, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Larry P. Walker serves as a private consultant, after having spent a career at the forefront of biobased fuel research and development at Cornell University. He joined Cornell in 1979, following a short stint with the Tennessee Valley Authority as a process engineer, retiring as full professor and Director of the Biofuels Research Laboratory in June 2015.
During his 30 years at Cornell, Dr. Walker was involved in a number of biomass to energy projects, including an assessment of NYS biomass resources available for ethanol production, farm-scale methane production and co-generation, the application of nanotechnology to discover and study important biocatalysts for biofuels and industrial biotechnology, and the optimization of solid-state fermentation for the production of natural products. Dr. Walker has served in numerous leadership roles including serving as coeditor in chief for the journal Industrial Biotechnology, adviser for the Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Assessment for New York, member of the New York State Climate Action Plan Advisory Panel, the National Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee, the Education Committee of the American Council of Renewable Energy, and the Advisory Board for the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy.
In 2009, he was elected as a fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and was also awarded the Black Enterprise Magazine Master of Innovation Award, and received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He was awarded the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2008, and was named to the CANR Farm Lane Society in 2015.
2016 Alumni Honors
John W. Larkin, PhD '84, Agricultural Engineering & Food Science, was awarded the 2016 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
John W. Larkin began making an impact in the food science industry even as an undergraduate student - through jobs, internships, and research projects.
He completed his undergraduate and master's degrees in food science and nutrition (1978 and 1980, respectively) at The Ohio State University, and earned his PhD from MSU in 1984. He then took a position as assistant professor at Virginia Tech in both the Food Science and Agricultural Engineering Departments, where he developed a research program measuring thermal properties of food products.
In 1987 John accepted a fellowship with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and in 1989 was promoted to chief of the Food Processing Branch. He managed many projects, including those involving seal integrity of packaged food products, identification and isolation of Clostridium botulinum spores, and adequacy of dairy processing systems to meet the requirements of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. From 1999-2002 John worked with the Grocery Manufacturers Association to develop a food industry specific guidance document on the validation of automated control systems - a document still in use today. Since 2014 John has been research director for the Food Protection and Defense Institute at the University of Minnesota. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
His awards and accomplishments include an FDA Individual Award for Significant and Exceptional Performance (1997) and being elected a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (2007).
John loves to watch Big 10 football; he cheers for both MSU and OSU and tries not to pick sides when they play each other. He has been married to his wife, Bev - whom he met while a student at MSU - for 32 years. They live in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. They have three children - Evan, Andrew, and Emily.
2015 Alumni Honors
Elaine P. Scott, PhD '87, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2015 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Elaine P. Scott is dean of the newly formed School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Washington Bothell. The school provides excellence in education in a collaborative environment with ties to local industry. Under Elaine's leadership, it has experienced 82 percent growth in two years.
Prior to joining UW Bothell in 2012, Elaine was a professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, and also served on the faculty at Michigan State University, the University of Utah, and Seattle Pacific University. In addition to her PhD degrees in agricultural engineering and in mechanical engineering from MSU, Elaine holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in agricultural engineering from the University of California, Davis.
At Virginia Tech, she was responsible for the successful planning, development, and initial leadership of a new interdisciplinary, multi-institutional school - the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences.
Her research in the area of biosystems ranges from modeling of quality loss in frozen foods to the estimation of blood perfusion. Her work in power electronics focuses on cooling of power electronics systems, and her work on aerospace systems focuses on parameter estimation of complex materials and estimation methods for high unsteady heat fluxes.
She received a Women to Watch in Life Science award during the 2013 Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association's annual Life Science Innovation Northwest conference. In 2014, she received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal for Academic Achievement from UC Davis, and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Elaine is also passionate about research in engineering education and in enabling women and minority students to pursue careers in engineering. She has been involved with numerous government and industry-sponsored projects in the areas of characterizing complex thermal systems and engineering education.
2014 Alumni Honors
Cassaundra Edwards BS '94, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2014 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Cassaundra F. Edwards is a research and development manager at ConAgra Foods in a strategic customer development role, driving product innovation for warehouse club markets such as Costco, Sam's, and BJ's.
For nearly 20 years she has held various roles within the food industry, starting as a junior engineer developing innovative frozen meals for Nestlé and researching novel non-thermal preservation technologies such as high pressure pasteurization and irradiation for Kraft Foods, and leading a product technical team with the integration of two food industry giants—Kraft Foods and Nabisco. Throughout her career she has touched a multitude of consumer brands such as Stouffers, A.1. Steak Sauce, Grey Poupon Mustard, Lunchables, Oscar Mayer, Banquet, and Hunt's.
Cassaundra holds a bachelor of science in biosystems and agricultural engineering from Michigan State University and a master of engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
She has a great passion for her work in the food industry and for developing the careers of young scientists and engineers. She has been a member of MSU's Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Industry Advisory Board for the past four years and now serves as its chair.
Cassaundra attributes her professional accomplishments and development to her family and a network of mentors who have shared their leadership philosophies and ideals and ultimately helped shape her as a leader. Her personal philosophy on leadership is that “great leadership is achieved partly through other great leaders and people helping you along the way.”
In addition to driving business growth for ConAgra Foods, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jay Edwards, eight-year-old son, Miles, and a mischievous Welsh terrier, Coltrane. They currently reside in Omaha, Nebraska.
2013 Alumni Honors
Scott Piggott was awarded the 2013 Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
Mr. Piggott (BS, Biosystems Engineering, 1998; MS, Biosystems Engineering, 2010) was hired as Chief Operating Officer of Michigan Farm Bureau in April of 2012. As Chief Operating Officer, Scott is responsible for planning, managing and supervising all of Farm Bureau's ongoing programs and services. Scott began his career with Michigan Farm Bureau in 2000 as Natural Resources and Right to Farm Specialist and became manager of the Agricultural Ecology Department in 2002 where his responsibilities included environmental issues like air quality, water quality and water quantity. Scott has served on over 20 committees and boards, including co-chairmanship of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program and the Michigan Groundwater Conservation Advisory Council. Scott has been an invited fellow for environmental concerns at Michigan State University, University of Michigan and University of Toronto.
Scott earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University. He has worked for the State of Michigan and designed air pollution control devices in private industry. Scott lives and works on his family's farm near Fowler, Michigan with his wife Donna and four children.
2012 Alumni Honors
Steve Richey, BS '80, MS '87, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2012 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.
Upon graduation in 1980, Steve took a position as a design engineer with Bolens Outdoor Power Equipment in Port Washington, Wisconsin, designing and testing walk-behind mowers and snowblowers. He returned to MSU in 1982 to begin work on his master's program under Dr. Ajit Srivastava on a project funded by John Deere Harvester Works to simulate the performance of small grain combines.
In 1984, Steve began his career at Kellogg Company in the Advanced Technology Group and progressed through Engineering and Research Groups over the next 20 years. Responsibilities he had on some recognizable new products included project manager and process engineer on the first Rice Krispies Treats Squares®; and process engineer on the first multi-colored, flavored Mini-Wheats® (Maple & Brown Sugar MiniWheats®) and Fruit Twistables®. He has received three patents for equipment, products, and processes; has been recognized with multiple internal awards; and was inducted into the Kellogg 25-Year Club in 2009.
In 2005, Steve became a director in Morning Foods Process Engineering at Kellogg's. This group provides process engineering for cereal projects in the United States and Canada, as well as technical expertise to North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America business units. He provides engineering expertise for cereal manufacturing network strategies and has made significant contributions to training programs for cereal process engineering and development of engineering managers.
Steve maintains a connection with MSU's Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) by volunteering to promote food engineering to freshman classes, speaking to the engineering student clubs, and helping to organize Kellogg participation in MSU Engineering Week activities. He has been a member of the BAE Department Industry Advisory Board since 2007 and chaired the board in 2010.
2011 Alumni Honors
Eugene (Gene) Ford was awarded the MSU College of Engineering BAE 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Mr. Ford is vice president of global technology management, R&D, at Nestlé Nutrition in Fremont, Michigan. He has more than 25 years of experience in domestic and international product development, manufacturing, logistics, and sales within the consumer food industry. One of his strengths is his ability to establish strategic direction, bring structure to ambiguity, and design and execute new business concepts and business-building projects. He is also known for his strong consumer and customer focused business skills combined with leadership, communication, mentoring, and team-building skills. In 1984, he joined the Campbell Soup Company in Camden, New Jersey for R&D, in process research and development, as a research associate. Most recently, he was director of R&D, process development, within Campbell's USA Division, where he was responsible for a family of products under the Pace, Prego, Swanson, V8, and Campbell brands with sales exceeding $3.1 billion. After 22 years with Campbell's, Gene left in 2006 to become director of product development for Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., in Middleboro, Massachusetts. He was responsible for product development globally, including retail and business-to-business sales of ingredients of roughly $1.5 billion. In 2008, he moved into his current position with Nestlé. In addition to product development and manufacturing support for Infant Nutrition, Meals and Drinks, his duties include capital plan development and management for the site, strategic direction of a 35,000-square-foot pilot plant, seamless commercialization of technology including developing and conducting training, and intellectual property management. He is currently an IFT member.
Gene earned his BS (‘83) and MS ('84) in agricultural engineering from MSU, and an executive master of science in engineering degree in 1992 through the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
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