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Toyoki Kozai

Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA)

Toyoki Kozai is the honorary president of Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA), and working on the principles and methodology of sustainable plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) design and management to contribute to solving issues caused by global warming. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Engineering in 1972 from the University of Tokyo. After establishing his early work on greenhouse light environments, energy savings, ventilation, computer control, knowledge engineering, and closed plant production systems with artificial lighting, his scientific interest was extended to in vitro environments under artificial light and their control for sugar-free medium (photoautotrophic) micropropagation. After serving as Dean of the Faculty of Horticulture and Director of the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, he was inaugurated as the president of Chiba University in 2005. He was back in research as a Professor Emeritus in an endowed chair position at the above Center during 2009-2012 with a focus on medicinal plant production under controlled environments. Since 2010, he had been working as the president of JPFA and was leading R & D of PFAL and "integrative greenhouse environmental control" using heat pumps, fogging, and null-balance CO2 enrichment systems.