Designing Farms of the Future: LED Horticultural Lighting Systems

As Technical & Operations Director, Gretchen facilitates RII’s Technical Advisory Council Working Groups, writes technical guidance on resource efficient cultivation, develops and delivers curriculum, and supports PowerScore users with resource benchmarking analysis and reporting compliance. She authored RII’s Best Practices Guides on Cultivating Cannabis with LED Lighting and HVAC, as well as the state-specific guide for Massachusetts cultivators. She is a licensed Civil Professional Engineer - Construction in California and Vermont. Prior to joining RII, she was an Energy Engineer at the Burlington Electric Department where she helped commercial and institutional (C&I) customers like the University of Vermont and the City of Burlington save energy in their buildings and processes. She has a MS in Civil Engineering, Sustainable Design & Construction - Energy from Stanford University and has published research for the U.S. Green Building Council on the topic of ground-source heat pumps. She has a specialty in analyzing the interactive effects between HVAC and lighting systems after spending 2 years commissioning HVAC and lighting controls systems in C&I environments and evaluating energy efficiency programs in New England before switching to designing and implementing them for customers in Burlington, Vermont. Gretchen is a home cultivator and is constantly using her HVAC and lighting knowledge to optimize her grow environment.

Leora Radetsky is a Senior Lighting Scientist at the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) where she focuses on developing lighting solutions that promote energy optimization, quality, human factors, and performance in the areas of horticultural and architectural lighting. She has over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry as a research scientist with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of Customer Education at Lighting Analysts, Inc. She has extensive research and engineering experience in horticultural lighting, lighting software, product testing, lighting controls, photometry, daylighting, outdoor lighting and circadian rhythms. In 2014, she was awarded an IES Regional Technical Award from the Northeast region for her significant scientific contributions to the field of illumination. Leora has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with an Emphasis in Illumination from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.S. in Lighting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is Lighting Certified by the NCQLP.

Colin Brice joined Signify in March 2020 in the role of Plant Specialist; he is one of more than 20 plant specialists supporting Philips horticulture LED team. Colin is a horticultural scientist and systems engineer with experience in greenhouse management, LED photomorphogenesis research, and electronics design. As a Plant Specialist, Brice works with a team of horticultural specialists at Signify to design and implement LED lighting strategies, supporting sales efforts in all segments – ornamental, high-wire fruits and vegetables, lettuce and leafy greens in both greenhouse and closed-environment growing, and hemp and medicinal cannabis. Brice is a graduate of University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Plant Sciences and a Master of Science in Biosystems Technology. His graduate thesis focused on indoor cultivation of leafy greens, LED lighting systems, fluid handling systems, and electrical efficiency evaluations.

Mike grew up in the agricultural community of the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. There he developed a deep respect for both conventional and small scale organic production methods. He attended Northeastern University earning a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, and spent the first part of his career designing speaker systems and audio electronics for performing musicians. The switch to precision agriculture came naturally, and he has worked on a wide variety of projects in both cannabis and vegetable production, focusing on LED systems, sensors, power systems and facility design. Mike is the principal of Zartarian Engineering in Boston, MA.