Members

Dr. Chieri Kubota

 

Director – Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (OHCEAC)

Professor – Department of Horticulture and Crop Science (View her bio)

The Ohio State University

Email: kubota.10@osu.edu

Phone (office): (614) 292-3175

 

 

Current lab members:

Carly Becker, Program Coordinator

Carly Becker is the program coordinator for the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (OHCEAC) at Ohio State University, reporting to OHCEAC Director Dr. Chieri Kubota. Carly works with the PI’s and consortium members of the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center working behind the scenes on OHCEAC events, outreach, communications, and on other administrative tasks.

 

Dr. Changhyeon Kim, Postdoctoral Scholar

Changhyeon’s research: My research at Kubota lab on behalf of the ADVANCEA project is how to improve the productivity of greenhouse-grown high-wire tomato based on physiological evidence and autonomous environment control in controlled environment agriculture.

 

Dr. Yiyun Lin, Postdoctoral Scholar

Yiyun’s research: My current project focuses on determining indoor environmental conditions for strawberry flavor improvement. This project involves collaborations among scientists in plant genetics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, food science, and controlled environment agriculture. I am very excited to be part of the team.

 

John Ertle, PhD Graduate Student (HCS)

John’s research: Indoor vertical farms (IF) have gained popularity in the US within the last decade. Lettuce is the most produced crop in these systems, but often suffer from the calcium deficiency called tipburn due to poor airflow causing low transpiration of young leaves near the meristem. Most prevention methods (e.g., foliar calcium sprays, slowing growth) are not ideal in IF facilities. Therefore, new methods are needed to prevent the common deficiency. John’s research explores the role of environmental control systems and novel technological applications including lighting control to minimize tipburn risk of lettuce in indoor farms.

 

Jason Hollick, PhD Graduate Student (HCS)

Jason’s research: Jason’s research seeks to understand how grafting (a particular rootstock and scion combination) alters plant growth, development, and nutritional requirements in tomato and watermelon. Grafted watermelon has many benefits including disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance. However, US growers can face delayed or reduced early harvests compared to ungrafted plants. Jason studies flower development throughout the grafting process and investigates nutritional management strategies to promote earlier flower and fruit development in grafted watermelon.

 

Pooja Tripathi, PhD Graduate Student (HCS)

Pooja’s research: Strawberry propagation in the US is open-field based. With the increasing interest in indoor strawberry production, the availability of clean transplant materials is important. My research is focused on optimizing greenhouse propagation for year-round transplant production. This project is part of a much bigger collaborative project with several other universities and the industry, and I am very excited to be a part of it.

 

Ian Rabinowitz, MS Graduate Student (MPHM, Dr. Sally Miller)

 

 

 

Sam Offenbecher, Undergraduate Research Assistant (HCS)

Lydia Krage, Undergraduate Research Assistant (HCS)

Keiya Satoh, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Env. Engineering)

 

 

Kubota lab alumni (OSU & UA)

Research Staffs

  • Brandon Jewell, Research Technician, UA
  • Charlotte Romo, Research Technician, UA
  • Cody Fasbinder, Research Technician, UA
  • Wanwiwat Lovichit, Research Technician, UA
  • Myles Lewis, Research Specialist, UA

Postdoctoral Research Associates

  • Dr. Doug Hopper, OSU
  • Dr. Jamal Javanmardi, UA
  • Dr. Ryo Matsuda, UA
  • Dr. Ricardo Hernandez, UA

Graduate Students

  • Jeffrey Bates, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • Madeline Horvat, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • Gio Papio, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • John Ertle, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • Tom McKean, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • Dan Gillespie, MS in Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU
  • Johann Buck, MS in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Min Wu, PhD in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Wanwiwat Lovichit, MS in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, UA
  • Ian Justus, MS in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Polung Chia, MS in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Qian Li, PhD in Biology, Northwest A&F University, China, UA
  • Hans Spalholtz, MS in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Ricardo Hernandez, PhD in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Michael Whalen, MS in Plant Sciences, UA
  • Caitlyn Hall, MS in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, UA
  • Karla Garcia, MS in Plant Sciences, UA

Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Jason Hollick, HCS, OSU
  • Mary MacLeod, HCS, OSU
  • Broderick Ball, FABE, OSU
  • Gio Papio, FABE, OSU
  • John Partee, HCS, OSU
  • Justin Clifford, FABE, OSU
  • Katherine Dietrich, Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, UA
  • Emily Seddon, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Emily Rockey, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Casey Lohrenz, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Brent Salazer, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Alex Dragotakes, International Program / Plant Sciences, UA
  • Diana Vercillo, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Amber Pantel, Plant Sciences, UA
  • Jose Pablo Santana, Agricultural and Resource Economics, UA
  • Alex Schaller, Sustainable Plant Systems, UA
  • Connor Everly, Plant Sciences, UA

Visiting Scholars

  • Dr. Zhen Chao Yang, Northwest A&F University, China
  • Dr. Murat Deveci, Namik Kemal University, Turkey
  • Tomomi Eguchi, Japan

Visiting Graduate Students

  • Hiromi Toida, Chiba University, Japan
  • Shingo Yokoi, Chiba University, Japan
  • Mariko Hayakumo, Chiba University, Japan
  • Leo Sabatino, Palermo University, Italy
  • Yuki Yoneda, Japan
  • Tomohiro Jishi, University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Kazuya Maeda, Chiba University, Japan