IES GO: Lighting Podcasts

These are transformational times for the lighting industry. The cost of LED-based products has dropped dramatically. At the same time, increased sophistication and capabilities of tunable LED arrays, controls, and sensors now enable the commissioning of platforms that can precisely control light intensity, correlated color temperature, and relative spectral content.

Whether you call it “circadian lighting,” “biologically effective lighting,” or some other name, the principle is the same: the color and intensity of light can be used to regulate the timing of our biological clocks, or “circadian rhythms.” For architects and lighting designers, this is an opportunity to provide healthy and comfortable environments for building occupants.

There is a common-sense argument being presented in the popular media that since humans evolved under sunlight, our bodies must surely make use of all the solar energy available to us. Given that more than 50 percent of this energy is due to near-infrared radiation, we are clearly risking our health and well-being by using LED lighting that emits no near-infrared radiation whatsoever.

As our population continues to grow, farm land disappearing and an increased awareness of what goes into our produce, the need to increase yield without chemicals is a critical topic. Host Mark Lien and Dr. Pocock discuss using LEDs (irradiance, spectral composition, timing, duration) to program photochemical, photosynthetic, development and biochemical processes in plants and the development of a physiological biofeedback system to maintain or change LED physiological programs. In layman’s term growing to produce better, stronger, faster. This fascinating, ground-breaking, and often warm interchange should not be missed.

Dr. Tessa Pocock is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After obtaining a Ph.D. in plant physiology in Canada she moved her research to Sweden as a recipient of a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship. She joined RPI in 2014 after a decade in the European horticultural lighting industry where she oversaw over 800 LED spectral high throughput experiments on greens, herbs, and medicinal plants. She is co-inventor on three technology patents, has authored or co-authored three book chapters and twenty-one peer-reviewed articles and has spoken at over 27 international conferences.

“We work at the leading edge of LED systems engineering, plant photobiology, plant physiology, and greenhouse environmental controls. Our goal is to develop, transfer and implement energy-efficient CEA lighting systems to reduce your operational costs and lower your carbon footprint. This means increased profitability without compromise. Join Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) and become part of the first horticultural lighting technology hub.”

Mark Rea discusses the state of lighting education today, the need for revised discussion on lighting metrics, levels and need for action now.

Trailblazers and Icons is an inspiring and informative series of interviews with some of the lighting communities’ most recognized thought leaders, teachers and practitioners and others. The interviews, conducted by IES Fellow Daniel Blitzer, elicit from each interviewee their major contributions to lighting and their perspective on some of the major issues currently facing the lighting industry. Additional interviews will be added to the series each year with a handful of others who have blazed a trail in lighting.