Shuyang Zhen, PhD student in the horticultural physiology lab, won the graduate student competition at the 8th International Symposium on Light in Horticulture. Shuyang presented her research showing that far-red light can play an important role in optimizing light use efficiency of plants grown under LED light. Her work challenges the widespread perception that far-red light is used very inefficiently by plants. She was able to show that far-red can actually play an important role in assuring that plants can use all different colors of light efficiently. Her results attracted much attention from the many lighting companies present at the symposium, since Shuyang’s findings can help them design better lights for plant growth.
