Dr. Otto Loewer, professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, has taught at the University of Arkansas on a number of occasions, beginning in 1985, when he was Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department Head until 1992. He returned in 1996, serving as Dean of the College of Engineering until 2002 when he founded the University of Arkansas Economic Development Institute (UAEDI).
UAEDI helped improve economic, community, education and leadership development in rural communities across Arkansas, especially in the Delta. The Crossroads Coalition in East Arkansas was one of UAEDI’s initiatives and received considerable national recognition.
Loewer returned to the faculty of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in 2009.
Loewer has worked in various capacities at six different Land Grant universities, earned placement in the Louisiana State University College of Engineering Hall of Distinction and served as president of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE).
He also chaired the effort to create the Arkansas Research & Technology Park and secured external funding for the remodeling of the Engineering Research Center.
Loewer originally chose agricultural engineering because he planned on returning home, to help his father with the family rice, soybean and cattle farm which was connected to the family’s commercial seed business.
“I always thought I’d return. At a certain age, you don’t consider other possibilities,” he said.
Loewer earned his bachelor’s of science in agricultural engineering from Louisiana State University, his masters of science in agricultural engineering, also from LSU, a second masters of science in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and his doctorate in agricultural engineering from Purdue University.
Initially, he didn’t have much direction in choosing a college major. “I didn’t fully take into account my interests and talents,” he said. Loewer was influenced by the opinion of his father’s former college roommate, an engineer, to pursue agricultural engineering at Louisiana State University.
To any college student that is “undecided,” Loewer suggests “take a personality test, not a vocational test, and then work within those boundaries.” What’s most important, he said, is to “understand who you are. The world of higher education—stretches you too far sometimes during the undergrad experience, you cover a lot of different things.”
Instead of being discouraged by the breadth of topics and skills, Loewer encourages students to “just stick it out and when you get to grad school, you can choose a focus (something you excel at) and do well.”
Over the years, Loewer has met many admirable people and remembers an exceptional few as role models. These people were not famous, or particularly known for their research. Instead, they were people that “always had integrity, were articulate and competent, ethical and able to communicate.”
Among these people were two Department Heads and a dean he worked for, early in his career.
“One of the department heads knew how to recruit,” he said. “He understood human nature and how to choose people that would succeed together.”
Of approximately 22 faculty recruited by this department head, 17 would later became department heads or deans.
The other department head was an inspiring force. “He knew what it took to excite people and to get them involved,” Loewer said. “He looked after people. I wanted to work just to please him!”
Loewer found special respect for the Dean of Agriculture because this person truly cared for his faculty.
“In a position like that, you can scare people with what you’re going to do with the budget and your power, but this guy didn’t,” he said. “If you’re going to be truly successful, you have to look after the interest of the faculty.”
For example, early in his teaching career, before he had any sabbatical credit, Loewer had a research opportunity in Brazil that would require a few months of his time.
“Now, anyone else might have told me it was too early to do something like that, but this guy sat down with me and said, ‘I can give you a half of a sabbatical, and if you throw in some leave, I’ll work with you.”
Loewer would later understand the benefit of that research trip to the college and to the Dean, but he was first, and always, grateful for the personal benefit of the experience.
“At the time…I did understand it would benefit me, and I greatly appreciated him helping me.”
Above all, Loewer believes that kindness, integrity and honest concern from those in positions of power generate true respect.
His extensive experience has shown him that the strongest academic cultures are between types of universities and disciplines, not regional locations.
“Land Grant universities like the University of Arkansas are much alike in culture. They were created to serve people,” he said. “Every university has a culture, and this one is changing.”
As an educator, he learned that “students everywhere have the same needs.”
Loewer’s most recent work is the development of a new course, “Linkages among technology, economics and societal values: understanding change in the emerging chaos.”
“This subject is one of my fascinations,” he said, explaining that he did all the development of coursework materials. “I’ve given international workshops on this subject and now have a distance education version with video presentations.”
Loewer got the idea when preparing a presentation for the 100 year anniversary of ASABE based on this professional engineering society’s vision for the next 100 years.
The Linkages course will be offered next during the spring semester of 2012.
Prerequisites are senior or graduate standing.
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