Facts about the

American Society of Agricultural Engineers

· ASABE is an international educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to biological, food, and agricultural systems.

· Founded in 1907 and headquartered in St Joseph, Michigan, ASABE comprises 9,000 members representing more than 100 countries.

· The Society is recognized internationally for its technical leadership in all areas of biological, food, and agricultural engineering: natural resources, food and bioprocesses, power systems and machinery, structures and environment, information and electrical technology, energy, biological systems, nursery and greenhouse operations, aquaculture, forestry, and farm safety.

· ASABE is a world leader in the development of engineering standards for agriculture, with more than 200 standards, engineering practices, and data documents in publication. ASABE's standardization process is open, voluntary, and accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and numerous ASABE documents are recognized as American National Standards. In addition, several ASABE technical committees have the distinction of serving as US voting bodies for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards committees.

· The Society has an active publications department with an annual output of more than 15,000 document pages. Publications include three refereed journals, plus textbooks, conference proceedings, a history series, and the ASABE Standards yearbook. Online access to the periodicals, standards, and conference proceedings is free to all members of ASABE.

· ASABE hosts an annual society-wide international meeting with attendance that exceeds 1500. The 2005 meeting will be held jointly with the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineers and will convene July 17 – 20 in Tampa, Florida. More than 1100 technical presentations are anticipated. The Society also organizes a number of highly regarded specialty conferences throughout the year related to agricultural, food, and biological engineering.

· The Society serves1200 Preprofessional members in 80 university chapters across the United States and Canada. ASABE sponsors several student competitions that attract participants from across the US and Canada and beyond. These include the Environmental Student Design Competition, Fountain Wars and the ¼ Scale Tractor Student Design Competition.