Dr. James Altland is a Research Horticulturist and the Research Leader for the USDA-ARS Application Technology Research Unit (ATRU). Although the role of the ATRU has historically been to develop new pesticide application technologies, it has shifted its focus in the last 5 years to developing CEA technologies. While leading a team of 10 scientists in various aspects of CEA from entomology, plant pathology, engineering, and horticulture, Dr. Altland’s expertise encompasses the development of substrate technologies for containerized plant production. With collaborations at OSU, this has recently evolved into the microbial community analysis of container substrates.