Biological and Environmental Science Seminar 17.9.2026

Titta Kotilainen has specialized in light measurements and analysis of different light environments and plant photobiology and applied this knowledge to controlled environment agriculture. After completing her PhD at the University of Jyväskylä in 2010, she worked as a research manager at Valoya Ltd, being responsible for R&D planning and conducting in-house plant photobiological experiments and coordinating experiments with collaborators. After that she worked as a postdoc at the University of Helsinki, in the research group led by Dr. T. Matthew Robson. During that time she spent 6 months working with Associate Professor Ricardo Hernandez at the NC State University. Since 2018 Titta Kotilainen has worked at the Natural Resources Institute Finland and was in March 2025 appointed as a Research Professor of Horticultural Technology. Together with her colleagues she is doing applied research to tackle some of the biggest challenges for modern greenhouse and vertical farming production in Northern Europe: coping with high production costs related to lighting and heating and developing sustainable growing media solutions.