The Bridges Lab builds connections across the postharvest value chain through engineering innovation and premarket solutions. Our research focuses on how drying and storage affect the quality, stability, and value of emerging crops and medicinal herbs. We design renewable, solar-powered drying systems; model drying kinetics to optimize dryer performance; and conduct stability trials alongside nutritional and bioactive compound analysis.

A central focus of our work is hemp, a crop with vast yet underexplored potential due to decades of prohibition. We are passionate about investigating hemp’s many applications and fostering transdisciplinary collaborations that enable questions long constrained by regulatory and historical barriers to be addressed with excellent science at the forefront. Beyond engineering solutions, our lab integrates economic, social, and environmental considerations using bioeconomy frameworks that center people and place within the research process.

At its core, the Bridges Lab asks: Can emerging crops like hemp support regional and global bioeconomies by strengthening the postharvest value chain, bridging the gap between cultivation and market entry? Our work aims to answer this question while advancing sustainable technologies that create resilient, equitable agricultural systems in Nebraska and beyond.

Dr. Bridges appointment is within both the Biological Systems Engineering and Food Science and Technology Departments with an apportionment that is 45% Teaching and 55% Research.