Horticultural scientist Uttara Samarakoon has joined the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Mid-Florida Research and Education Center (MREC) to focus on researching protected agriculture practices.
As a faculty member at UF/IFAS MREC, she will be working with growers, and particularly new farmers, on controlled environment agriculture methods, such as sustainable crop management, introducing new high value crops and growing media, nutrient management for leafy greens and highwire crops and organic crop production. Her goal is to support ornamental crop producers with science-based solutions to production challenges.
“We are excited to welcome Dr. Uttara Samarakoon to the Mid-Florida Research and Education Center. Her expertise in greenhouse production and plant physiology will strengthen our team, and her research will play a key role in advancing controlled environment and greenhouse horticultural practices in Florida,” said UF/IFAS MREC Center Director Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski.
Samarakoon, an associate professor in the UF/IFAS Department of Horticultural Sciences, began at MREC in August. Her work has spanned continents and countries, from her bachelor’s education in agriculture from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka to her Ph.D. residency in New Zealand at Massey University in the Institute of Agriculture and Environment.
Her career in horticulture research began in the Department of Plant Sciences at Rajarata University in Sri Lanka, and she worked her way up the ladder to become a post-doctoral research specialist at Clemson University in South Carolina and later in a professor role at the Ohio State University, respectively.
Her time in Ohio was centered around research and education in greenhouse and nursery management, including work with their Extension network via the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. She created and ran a five-year program to train 120 teachers from across Ohio and neighboring states about how to create and maintain a greenhouse at their schools.
She said she hopes to implement similar programs to the one she helped create, called CEA Works, for protected culture growers and extension agents in Florida.
During her short time at UF, she has so far earned research grants from the USDA worth about $430,000.
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ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
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