Justin Zabilansky
AeroFarms
Newark, NJ USA
"There’s a whole lot of opportunities within this space to not only create lettuce factories but do a lot of different stuff with this type of technology that can hopefully impact the world in a very positive way."
Career Roadmap
Justin's work combines: Engineering, Science, and Building Things
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
My background is in biological engineering but we also have people here who are working on the control side, mechanical side, and electrical side. We need a variety of skillsets in this field, so if one of those engineering specializations calls to you, there's likely a need for it here.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Biological/Biosystems Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I grew up learning to grow and hunt my own food and live off the land as much as possible.
2.
Coming out of high school, I knew I was interested in sustainability, biology, and engineering.
3.
I earned my bachelor’s degree in biological engineering and was initially considering either going into pharmaceuticals or continuing my education.
4.
I heard about this new thing called vertical farming and thought it sounded interesting, so I reached out to the founder of AeroFarms for an opportunity.
5.
I started at AeroFarms in the research and development department where I worked on machine vision applications and data analysis.
6.
I eventually moved into the production facility and learned how to operate our large grow room.
7.
I currently work as the director of engineering design and spend my time figuring out how we create a controlled environment and systems that enable automation for large scale growing.
