Mary Leigh Wolfe, professor of biological systems engineering, retired in January 2022, after serving for almost 30 years in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the College of Engineering. Wolfe was the first woman in the department to be promoted to professor and to serve as the department head.

Wolfe received both her bachelor’s (‘79) and master’s (‘82) in Agricultural Engineering at Virginia Tech and she would later re-join the campus community as an associate professor in 1992. Wolfe had the unique experience of returning to Virginia Tech just as the department was embracing its new name of biological systems engineering. 

“The expansion of agricultural engineering to include additional aspects of biologically-related engineering initiated a massive change in the profession,” Wolfe said. “Additionally, there was a push towards a more multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to solve real-world problems.”

This new sense of collaboration within the discipline is what attracted Wolfe back to the region, after she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and served on the faculty at Texas A&M University for over six years. Around the same time that Wolfe was offered a faculty position at Virginia Tech, a group of Virginia Tech biological systems engineering faculty and researchers were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator’s Pollution Prevention Award for their contributions toward the Chesapeake Bay Nonpoint Source Pollution Program. This occasion marked the first time in which the EPA gave this award to an academic institution, and this only made Wolfe more excited. 

“On a professional level, I was excited to be working with faculty members who shared a common research interest,” Wolfe said. “On a more personal note, I was also happy to be closer to home and my friends and family.”

Wolfe grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore near Chesapeake Bay and she remembered always being drawn towards water and nature. A highlight of her childhood was spending time outside with cows and ponies at her grandfather’s farm in Westminster. As she progressed through school, she was introduced to the engineering field and, though she didn’t know any engineers, she was naturally drawn to the profession because she enjoyed math and science and had a deep desire to solve world problems. During her first year at Virginia Tech, she discovered agricultural engineering at an information session and knew quickly that that would be the major for her. 

Mary Leigh Wolfe stands in front of waterfalls
In her retirement, Wolfe intends to see more of the world, engage in local service, and find a new hobby or two. Photo courtesy of Mary Leigh Wolfe.

As a self-described “water person,” Wolfe gravitated towards research in the Watershed Science and Engineering pathway and would focus on nonpoint source pollution control and modeling. She would also conduct research in engineering education. Over her career, she has served as principal or co-principal investigator for 64 projects, with funding from federal and state agencies totaling over $11.5M. Much of her research was inter-disciplinary; she frequently collaborated with researchers in the the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Among her publications, three stand out among the rest for Wolfe: The Best Management Practices (BMPs) Handbook for Plasticulture, which helped farmers implement better practices to mitigate pollutant runoff from crops; the Virginia Phosphorous Index, a resource used by the state to reduce the delivery of phosphorus to water bodies; and the “Introduction to Biosystems Engineering” open textbook, the first of many books in the open textbook movement which focuses on giving students access to high-quality educational resources at no cost. 

Wolfe serves the BSE and larger engineering profession as an active volunteer and leader in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), serving as president in 2015-16, and in the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), serving as president in 2018-2019. She is a fellow of ASABE, ABET, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). With her dedication to education, Wolfe was especially honored to receive the ASABE 2020 Massey-Ferguson Educational Gold Medal.

Wolfe is looking forward to having more time to try out new things in her retirement. She intends to see more of the world, engage in local service, and find a new hobby or two. She also says that she will stay connected with the department to help current students connect with alumni. Wolfe leaves this advice for students:

“Take advantage of opportunities to meet and network with people – students, faculty, alumni – both at Virginia Tech and other places. Learn from every experience, explore different opportunities and interests, follow your passion, and, please, don’t forget to have fun!”

Written by Cameron Warren