January General Meeting via ZOOM
Monday, January 12, 2026
Speaker: Thomas Graham
Topic: An Introduction to Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA)
Thomas Graham is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and holds the Kensana Research Chair in Controlled Environment Systems at the University of Guelph. While working towards his PhD (2012), Thomas was the Research & Development Manager for the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF), a world leader in controlled environment agriculture research. Upon completion of his PhD, Thomas was awarded a three-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) post-doctoral research program. After completing his posting at NASA in 2015, Thomas returned to the CESRF as faculty.
Thomas has established and continues to develop a broad-based and interdisciplinary research program around Controlled Environment Plant Production systems (CEPPS) and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). His research activities encompass many international and domestic collaborations and partnerships covering topics such as, but not limited to, bioregenerative life support for human space exploration, northern and remote community food insecurity, high intensity urban and peri-urban agriculture (vertical farms), medical crop migration to controlled environment production, [agricultural] water remediation and treatment technologies, and greenhouse BMP development.
Thomas is also active in STEM outreach activities and served as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Space Agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge. Thomas is also active in science communications, as an editor and peer reviewer for several journals. In an unrelated field, Thomas serves as a
patient advocate, working closely with McMaster’s Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research, where he focuses on student research on glioblastoma and other brain cancers.
Dr. Graham will be presenting “An Introduction to Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA)” during which he will examine and give examples of how CEA helps to address food insecurity in both urban settings and in northern and remote communities. He will also outline the state and
severity of food insecurity. As a related topic, Dr. Graham will discuss the production of medically relevant crops in CEA and how that can help address both safety and biodiversity impacts associated with current production practices.