By Jordan Powers
Photos by Amanda Greene
Designed by Katie Walker
Georgia growers battle unpredictable weather, pests and diseases to keep the state’s top industry thriving. Now a team of scientists is giving them a powerful new tool: cutting-edge research in controlled environment agriculture (CEA), designed to take the guesswork out of growing.
CEA involves the production of specialty crops — edible, medicinal and ornamental — in indoor systems, such as greenhouses and vertical farms, that allow precise technological control over environmental elements like light, humidity and temperature.
Coming together from the departments of horticulture, plant pathology and entomology at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the “Fab 5” of CEA work together to improve plant growth and development using crop physiology, address plant disease challenges, breed new cultivars, integrate new technologies to tackle critical challenges in CEA crop production, and provide growers with reliable pest management strategies.
The team aims to help producers in Georgia and beyond optimize crop production strategies and maximize profitability and also train the next generation of students to work in CEA — the fastest growing agribusiness sector in Georgia.
Rhuanito Soranz Ferrarezi, professor
Department of Horticulture
Emphasis: CEA crop physiology and production
What brought you to UGA? How long have you been here?
My deep connections with Georgia, my passion for the CEA industry, the desire to teach undergraduate and graduate students to prepare them for the marketplace, and the idea of creating a CEA hub in the Southeastern U.S. to improve the livelihood of our Georgian growers motivated me to come to UGA and establish my CEA Crop Physiology and Production Laboratory.
What do you bring to the CEA team?
We are all in this together, but I bring in years of experience in plant physiology, agricultural engineering and institutional knowledge, allowing me to provide a great perspective on how to connect with the industry and focus on cutting-edge research to position this group as a reference for the industry, students and other colleague scientists on the opportunities we have in our state.
What is something the public should know about your work?
My research and education program at UGA focuses on CEA crop physiology and production. What does that mean? Well, I do research on crop physiology (plant growth and development) and production factors (precision irrigation, plant nutrition, lighting, substrates, biopharmaceuticals, biostimulants and cropping systems) for indoor soilless cultivation in greenhouses and indoor or vertical farms.
My program investigates plant responses to different production factors and develops methodologies to maximize plant growth rate, development, morphology and physiology, and improve crop yield, quality and profitability of horticultural crops in indoor systems.
I also teach two courses, lead the UGA Hydroponics Club, direct a May session study abroad program to Valencia, Spain (launching in 2026), and advise and mentor dozens of graduate and undergraduate students at UGA and around the globe.
What is your proudest recent accomplishment?
I recently graduated eight master’s degree students, publishing a dozen research papers with them, which helped scientists, students and growers better understand the work we do at the lab and assist our stakeholders in having information for data-driven decisions in their operations.
One of the most innovative examples is the reporting of biofeedback control of photosynthetic lighting through real-time monitoring of leaf chlorophyll fluorescence. We developed a chlorophyll fluorescence-based biofeedback system for CEA. Its main goal is to optimize LED lighting in real-time by adjusting light intensity based on actual plant responses rather than fixed settings. This dynamic control boosts photosynthetic efficiency and can reduce lighting costs, adapting to factors like plant acclimation and specific crop needs.
What is something your colleagues or students might not know about you — hobbies, interests, secret talents?
I love motorcycles and recently joined an amazing motorcycle rider’s association that is exposing my wife and me to a lot of great networking and traveling. One of my best-known hobbies is making pizza in my outdoor wood-fired oven and sharing the goods with friends! I collect LEGOs as well as hotel access cards from all my business trips to have the memories of the places I visited and the people I interacted with over the years at conferences, workshops, talks for growers, students and more.
Ruchika Kashyap, assistant professor and UGA Extension specialist
Department of Plant Pathology
Emphasis: urban and controlled environment pathology
What brought you to UGA? How long have you been here?
The unique blend of UGA Cooperative Extension and research, along with the opportunity to work with a wide range of stakeholders in urban ag and CEA, drew me to UGA. It’s been a little over a year now, and I’m absolutely loving it! Go Dawgs! UGA and Georgia are both beautiful — so lush and green.
What is your role on the CEA team?
I serve as the plant pathologist, addressing plant disease challenges within CEA systems because plants can get sick and they need doctors as well!
What is something the public should know about your work?
My work is rooted in developing integrated, need-based strategies shaped through strong collaborations with stakeholders and fellow scientists. I focus on generating system- and crop-specific information to support applied, targeted plant-disease management and, ultimately, bringing what happens behind closed doors in the lab out into the real world. It’s all about bridging the gap between lab and land, and farm to fork!
What are you currently working on, and what is the end goal of that work?
I’m currently working on building a foundational understanding of the plant pathogens present in Georgia’s CEA systems by surveying and sampling different critical control points in a CEA production system. Identifying exactly what’s affecting plant health — what the pathogen is, where it’s coming from and how it’s spreading — is essential. This information is crucial for answering key management questions. My goal is to use these insights to develop practical tools such as educational materials and disease management strategies that help growers stay ahead of plant health challenges in urban and controlled settings.
What is something your colleagues or students might not know about you — hobbies, interests, secret talents?
I used to be a part-time radio jockey while pursuing my master’s degree, and it was one of the best experiences of my life! I’m excited to bring that passion into my current work. I’m planning to launch a science communication initiative called “Urban Pods: Where Science Meets People,” a digital hub for the CEA and urban ag community featuring podcasts, vlogs, blogs and short-form science journalism.
Andrew Ogden, assistant professor
Department of Horticulture and the Institute for Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics
Emphasis: plant breeding for CEA
What brought you to UGA?
I grew up in the South, mostly North Carolina. I had been living and teaching in New Hampshire for about 10 years and wanted to return to the Southeast. I’ve loved UGA ever since doing my master’s degree in horticulture here from 2006 to 2009. I saw the huge growth in CEA in Georgia and wanted to assist this exciting industry, so I started in this role in August 2023.
What is your role on the CEA team?
My role on the UGA Griffin campus is to breed new horticultural cultivars with good adaptation to growing in controlled environments.
What is something the public should know about your work?
Because CEA offers optimal conditions for growing plants, my goal is to generate new varieties of fruits and vegetables that are striking in their outward appearance, have heightened nutritional value, and have been selected due to their outstanding performance in controlled environments. Currently, CEA producers rely mainly on cultivars bred for field conditions rather than for controlled environments.
What are you currently working on, and what is the end goal of that work?
I recently provided seeds of new hybrids of summer squash to a major seed company that is currently evaluating them. If these hybrids enhance the livelihoods for growers, then I feel I will have contributed something very positive to the world. I am also very excited about new breeding projects in melon and tomato that I am working on. The end goal is to release cultivars that will really stand out in the marketplace for their attractive appearance and great flavor. My position involves both research and Extension. Through my Extension activities, I can get to know CEA growers and understand their needs and challenges. I enjoy interacting with growers very much.
What is something your colleagues or students might not know about you — hobbies, interests, secret talents?
I am a big music fan and enjoy playing and building African-style drums. Music has a way of bringing people together and bringing joy into people’s lives. Athens has a great music scene and two of my favorite bands are from there: Widespread Panic and the Drive-By Truckers. I also speak Spanish fluently and have traveled extensively and lived in Central America. I have also taken students to both Costa Rica and Peru on study abroad programs.
Zhihang Song, assistant professor
Department of Horticulture
Emphasis: CEA phenomics
What brought you to UGA? How long have you been here?
I joined UGA in late 2024, mainly attracted by its outstanding reputation in agricultural research and by the chance to collaborate with talented colleagues across disciplines. The resources and supportive community here make it an ideal place to pursue innovative research and mentor the new generation of scientists and engineers. I’m especially excited about the opportunity to dive deeper into plant phenotyping and automation technologies in controlled environment agriculture, with a particular interest in how these advances can benefit fruit and vegetable breeding and plant protection.
What is your role on the CEA team?
As a team member, I’m learning from the senior faculty members while also contributing my own experiences, expertise and new opportunities. I believe one of the strengths of our team is that each member is exploring their specialized research interests, while we all share an organic and collaborative spirit toward our common goal of advancing CEA.
What is something the public should know about your work?
My research and teaching programs focus on using advanced imaging, sensing, computer algorithms, and automation technologies to better understand how plants grow and respond to their environment. This is particularly critical because crops grown in controlled environments behave differently compared to how plants behave in field conditions. Having a digitalized knowledge base about our crops will help us manage and produce healthier crops more efficiently, which is crucial for the operation and food production in CEA.
What are you currently working on, and what is the end goal of that work?
I have been actively establishing our new lab at UGA, which is equipped with state-of-the-art imaging and sensing technologies. In the meantime, we are developing greenhouse robotics and fruit phenotyping devices that can provide high-quality and high-precision analysis of common small fruits and crops grown in controlled environments. The goal is to let growers and breeders have access to the advanced phenotyping technologies to help them identify accurate plant traits and early signs of potential problems, such as disease infection and nutrient deficiencies. This will assist them in making more informed decisions, improving crop quality and enhancing production efficiency.
What is something your colleagues or students might not know about you — hobbies, interests, secret talents?
I’m a big fan of exploring delicious and local food when I travel to new places, while cooking dishes from my home country whenever I get a chance on the weekend. I also like road trips with my family and hiking through historic sites and parks with natural forests. I have been trying to spare time after work to practice acoustic and electric guitar, since I really enjoy solo guitar music. I love pets and animals in general.
Erich Schoeller, assistant professor
Department of Entomology
Emphasis: controlled environment integrated pest management
What brought you to UGA? How long have you been here?
I came to UGA in fall 2023 to be part of a university with a strong focus on agricultural research and innovation that also prioritizes bringing these new opportunities to stakeholders via a robust Extension program. Georgia is rapidly growing its CEA industry, and it was a great opportunity to establish collaborations early with these companies that would mutually benefit my research and their operations. With Atlanta being the largest urban center in the Southeast, I am excited to help drive the industry forward with the potential to benefit so many people.
What is your role on the CEA team?
As an entomologist, my research targets both basic and applied approaches to provide stakeholders with reliable pest management strategies to maximize the returns of their horticultural enterprises and increase food safety. Insects and diseases are something every grower, regardless of their size and production facility technology, must deal with. As the industry evolves, so must the methods that we use to manage pests.
What is something the public should know about your work?
Integrated pest management is the term we use for a science-based decision support system for the sustainable management of pests. Note that we use the word “management” and not “eradication.” Eradication of insect pests should never be the goal when dealing with them, as it is neither economical nor feasible in most cases. This is something all growers should keep in mind as they strive to reduce pest populations to levels that do not cause economic losses to their crops.
What is your proudest recent accomplishment?
This year, my laboratory is beginning new research on how we can leverage different wavelengths of supplemental LED lighting used for plant production in CEA as a tool for integrated pest management. This will be a major component of my program. Insects are attracted or repelled by different colored light, and we may be able to manipulate their behavior with these colors in ways that facilitate their management in the target crop. This may not only be useful when targeting pests, but also to increase the efficacy of biological control agents.
What is something your colleagues or students might not know about you — hobbies, interests, secret talents?
I’ve been birding for nearly 40 years and have seen almost 600 species in the U.S. alone. I’m also a huge fan of “Godzilla” and have been collecting movies and memorabilia for more than 25 years.
Learn more about CEA by checking out “Growing beyond the field: What is controlled environment agriculture?” on the Cultivating Curiosity podcast.
