Modeling a better future: How Luis Rodríguez bridges biosystems research and community science
Life on Mars may sound like science fiction for some, but for Luis Rodríguez, it marked the beginning stages of his career in biosystems research. He laughs, remembering his first major project after completing his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering and bioresource engineering at Rutgers University: designing reliable zero-waste ecosystems capable of supporting crop production on Mars at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The project stemmed from his doctoral research and later evolved into future projects that secured some of the first grants he received at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “We were talking about zero waste before it was cool,” he says with a grin.
Over the years, Rodríguez’s research focus has shifted from outer space to Earth-side. Upon joining Illinois' Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering, in 2005, he began to study food and agricultural system supply chains. He soon took an interest in projects that address the resilience of these systems in vulnerable communities, where sustainability is challenged due to limited resources.
For Rodríguez, the shift wasn’t as big as it might seem. “One of the motivating factors while I was working for NASA was to ensure that the astronauts were safe and that the systems were reliable,” he says. “When I think about disaster resilience today, I’m thinking about the same themes, though the hazards are very different.”
Now, Rodríguez channels these themes into his roles as an educator, researcher, and leader at the U. of I., driving collaborative efforts to build resilient food-water-energy systems.