Name:	Marybeth Lima
Title:	Professor
Department:	Biological & Agricultural Engineering
Organization:	Louisiana State University
Phone:	(225) 578-1061
Fax:	(225) 578-3492
Email:	mlima1 [a] lsu.edu
Address:	149 E.B. Doran Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4505

Brief Biography:
Marybeth Lima is a Professor in Biological & Agricultural Engineering at Louisiana State University, a registered professional engineer, and a certified playground safety inspector. Her current responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in biological engineering and advising graduate and undergraduate students on research and design projects. Lima's research contributions have centered on biological engineering and engineering education. She has performed extensive work in engineering education and has pioneered the use of educational techniques such as service-learning in engineering and the integration of communication and teaming skills across the Biological Engineering curriculum. She has worked with the local community, engineering students, and public schools to create and build kid-designed, safe, fun, accessible playgrounds. Lima is passionately committed to improving the community through engineering-community partnerships that bring the principles of engineering alive for children and tangibly use engineering to enhance democratic society. This work has resulted in the design and construction of 13 playgrounds. Lima has been nationally recognized for her service-learning work by the American Society for Engineering Education and The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. She was also the recipient of two national service-learning awards in higher education, the Ernest A. Lynton Award for Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach (2005), and the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning (2007). Her rice research and playground design work was profiled in Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers (ASCE Press, 2006). Lima writes and speaks widely on service-learning issues, and is the co-author of the textbook Service-Learning: Engineering in Your Community.

Areas of Expertise