Benjamin Dye

Benjamin is a junior in Biological Systems Engineering from Rocky, Mount Virginia. He is on the Ecological Engineering track alongside a Geosciences minor, with academic interests in sediment transport, groundwater systems, and climate change. His goal is to pursue graduate studies to deepen his knowledge on how these fields integrate to address environmental challenges.

In the summer of 2024, Benjamin interned in Herpetology and Recent Invertebrate departments at the Virginia Museum of Natural History through the Smithsonian Leadership for Change program. He spent eight weeks on site at the museum learning how museums can use their resources to fight biodiversity loss through natural history collections management, molecular studies, field sampling, and public outreach. The highlight of this internship was creating and presented the Preventing Extinction Exhibit at the Dinosaur Festival. 

In the following summer, he joined the Hydrological Analysis Research Program, a collaboration between the BSE Department and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. His work consisted of utilizing USGS data to develop a methodology for predicting drought behavior, particularly in multi-year drought scenarios.

Beyond academics, Benjamin is involved with the Fountain Wars design team, contributing towards the electronics design for the fountain and travelled with the team to ASABE AIM in 2025 where they were awarded second place. He is also involved with the project development portion of the Wind Turbine Design team and recently began undergraduate research in the Sediment Transport lab.  

Outside of classes, Benjamin enjoys going outside to hike and fish, or staying inside to learn about various forms of technology. He is also a member of the Virginia Tech campus band ensemble and is a member of Virginia Tech chapter of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

As a BSE ambassador, Benjamin is excited to embody the spirit of Ut Prosim by helping guide prospective and new college of engineering students.