Rebekah Waller

Bekah is a PhD student in Biosystems Engineering and a graduate researcher at the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. She has held a traineeship position with the NSF-NRT Indigenous Food, Energy, Water Security & Sovereignty program since June 2018. Her research interests center on increasing the sustainability, efficiency, and accessibility of controlled environment agriculture systems, especially for off-grid, resource-limited applications. What is the optimal design for a greenhouse production system that not only supports local agriculture on otherwise un-arable land, but also can meet its own energy demands? This question has led to her current research project, looking at semi-transparent, thin-film solar cells for application as a greenhouse covering material. Other research interests include the design and integration of greenhouse systems with off-grid energy production and water filtration technologies. Bekah holds a B.S. degree in Environmental Science and B.A. degree in Arabic from Tufts University.