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UA Professor Gene Giacomelli will discuss developments in agriculture that allow plants to be grown in extreme environments.

By University Communications
January 31, 2008

Gene A. Giacomelli, a University of Arizona professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, will discuss the future of controlled environment agriculture at this month's "Got Science? Café."

Giacomelli, director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Chamber, known as the CEAC, will offer a short talk titled “Tomatoes on the Moon: Controlled Environment Technologies” on Monday at Enoteca Pizzeria Wine Bar, 58 W. Congress St.

As a pioneering researcher in controlled environment agriculture, Giacomelli is helping lead a small group of scientists in the development of growing systems capable of producing food in extreme environments – from the Tucson desert to Antarctica, the moon, Mars and beyond. In 2020, when the United States returns to the moon, he will be part of the team that will assure the project’s agricultural success.

Giacomelli’s team already has built a growth chamber that produces lettuce and other vegetables at the South Pole, an environment that is totally isolated in a frozen, 9,000-foot elevation desert of snow, where temperatures reach minus 118 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun doesn’t shine for months.

This discussion is ideal for those who have considered planting a garden in an extreme desert environment or had limited success in the past.

The science café is a casual forum for people to meet and discuss a science topic with a UA scientist in a relaxed atmosphere. Held the first Monday of each month, the discussions are current, relevant and sometimes slightly edgy, humorous or controversial.

For more information about Giacomelli’s work and the science café, visit http://www.gotuasciencecenter.org/got-science.