Rate My Professor John Buchanan

John Buchanan is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Engineering and his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, all from the University of Tennessee. With 36 years of service to the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Buchanan has excelled in teaching, research, and extension on soil erosion prevention, sediment control, water quality, agricultural waste management, and wastewater treatment for individual residences and small communities.

His research specializations include soil-based wastewater renovation, water reuse, phosphorus recovery from swine manure, struvite formation and control, stormwater management, and pervious concrete effects on water quality. Key publications include "Using a chemical equilibrium model to predict amendments required to precipitate phosphorus as struvite in liquid swine manure" (2007), "Thermodynamics of struvite formation" (1994), "Optimization of phosphorus precipitation from swine manure slurries to enhance recovery" (2003), "Design and evaluation of an improved flow divider for sampling runoff plots" (2004), and "The effect of pervious concrete on water quality parameters: a case study" (2019). As director of the department's undergraduate program and the Construction Science and Management Program, he has advised student teams to victories in national ASABE senior design competitions. A registered Professional Engineer in Tennessee, Buchanan teaches courses on soil-based wastewater renovation, environmental stormwater management, and water reuse. He chaired the Water Environment Federation's Small Community Committee from 2019 to 2021, served as past president of the Tennessee chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, and held board positions with the Tennessee Onsite Wastewater Association. In 2025, he received the J.E. Moss Achievement Award for excellence in teaching, research, and Extension from the Herbert College of Agriculture.