Dr. Mike Dixon Profile

Dr. Mike Dixon

Dr. Mike Dixon is the Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility and program, and Chair of the Environmental Biology Department, University of Guelph. Dr. Dixon joined the University in 1985 as an NSERC fellow after earning his PhD from Edinburgh University in Scotland and is now a full professor.

Through his leadership a multidisciplinary team of scientists were successful in securing a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant with matching support from the Ontario Innovation Trust to build the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) at the University of Guelph. The 850 sq. m. facility provides a complete research venue suitable for measurement of plant growth, gas exchange, volatile organic compound (VOC) evolution, and nutrient remediation in a precisely controlled environment. The Facility is comprised of 24 sealed environment chambers including 14 variable-pressure plant-growth hypobaric chambers capable of sustaining a vacuum. The Facility is the most sophisticated and largest research venue in the world specifically dedicated to studying plant and microbial interactions in advanced life support systems.

Off campus he is the technical exchange coordinator for the International Advanced Life Support Working Group (IALSWG) which is a strategic planning group offering information and personnel exchange between international space agencies such as CSA, NASA, ESA, RSA and JAXA (Japan). He also is a member for the Space Exploration Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and is a member of the Life Sciences and Technical Committee within the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

As project leader for the Canadian research team investigating the contributions of plants to life support in space, Dr. Dixon formed the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture (SALSA) program at the University of Guelph. This program currently represents Canada̢s prime contribution to the International Space program objectives in Life Support.

Working together Dr. Dixon and ICT International have produced the first digital Stem Hygrometer for continuosuly measuring and logging Plant Water Status in situ in the field.