Mark Lefsrud, Ph.D.
Professor
Bioresource Engineering Department
Macdonald Stewart Building, Macdonald Campus, Room MS1-096
Phone (514) 398-7967
Fax (514) 398-8387
Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Tennessee at Knoxville, 2006
M.S., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2001
B.Sc., University of Saskatchewan, 1997
General Area of Interest and/or Specialty
Environmental control for improved biomass production, bioenergy, and biochemical extraction of microorganisms and plants.
Description of current research and/or professional activities
The Biomass Production Laboratory focus is developing methods to improve monitoring and production of living organisms. This laboratory's primary goal is the improvement of plants for human consumption (food security), medical (medical cannabis) and energy (biofuels). Within this focus of food security we are investigating methods for Urban Agriculture including: greenhouse heating using wood pellets (with direct combustion and gasification), light emitting diodes for increased production, and using community proteomics to provide a novel method to monitor plant development. We are also investigating the production of bio-oil through field pea and algae production.
Food Security
Food security has become an increasing concern in Canada and around the world. Many individuals and families do not have access to fresh, nutritional food either because it is too costly, the food is not fresh anymore or it is not available at that time of year. The cost of most food is greatly increased due to the fact that food is transported by truck or plane over long distances to reach the consumer, with most fresh produce coming from Florida or California. These transported fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables can be damaged and lose some of their nutritional value during the transport making the purchase of these products even less appealing. The alternative choice to fresh food is highly processed foods, low in nutritional value. The constant consumption of these highly processed foods are impacting and causing severe consequences to the northern population’s health. Our solution is to move the production of these fresh fruits and vegetables closer to the consumer, specifically into the towns and cities and developing a technology known as Urban Agriculture or vertical farming.
What is Urban Agriculture?
Urban Agriculture is the idea of food production in an urban agricultural setting and has been proposed by a number of companies using a range of technologies. The major focus of our researched are: energy reduction (light and heat), selection of species and cultivars for this specific growing environment and determining the nutritional improvement of plants grown within the system. A major focus of our laboratory is improving lighting methods using LEDs within the building and developing methods to use renewable energy sources for heating and carbon dioxide production.
Awards
- William Dawson Scholars (McGill equivalent to a CRC Tier 2), 2015-2025.
- Gobal Engineering Teaching Award, 2014. Engineers Without Borders McGill University Student Branch.
- NABEC Young Engineer's Award, 2012.
NABEC Young Engineer of the Year honors NABEC members for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the Agricultural/Biological Engineering.
- Science and Technology in Society Forum (STS Forum). 2010. McGill - Young Scientist Nominee.
The Biomass Production Laboratory is strongly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Trainees will be selected on the basis of merit and applications from the following groups are encouraged: racialized persons/visible minorities, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities.
Representative Publications
Adaramola, O. D., P.Y. Kpai, P. W. Addo; S. MacPherson; L. Boucher, M. Lefsrud. Effects of CO2 enrichment and light spectrum on lettuce growth, morphology, and metabolites in controlled environment agriculture. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research 26(2026):102752. (IP:6.2)
Cabanillas, E., B. Goldstein, M. Lefsrud. 2026.. Comparing controlled-environment urban agriculture to conventional agriculture across Canada. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 46:4
Bohemen, J., S. Carvalho, D. Smith, C.S. Nicole, M. Lefsrud. 2025. LED interlighting: a cost-effective strategy to increase yield and chemical uniformity of Cannabis sativa at commercial scale. Scientia Horticulturae 351:114406
Debbagh, M., S. Sun, M. Lefsrud. 2025. Predictive Pattern Recognition Techniques Towards Spatiotemporal Representation of Plant Growth in Simulated and Controlled Environments: A Comprehensive Review. Plant Phenomics7(3):100089.
Salehinia, S., F Didaran, S Aliniaeifard, S MacPherson, Y Gariepy, M Lefsrud. 2025. Green light enhances the postharvest quality of lettuce during cold storage. Horticulturae-11(172):1-16
Desaulniers Brousseau, V., B. Goldstein, C. Sedlock, M. Lefsrud. 2024. The Environmental Impact of Outdoor Cannabis Production. ACS Agricultural Science & Technology. 4:690−699
Reddy, S., L. McCartney, B.-S. Wu, P. W. Addo, S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2024. Amber LEDs outperform red, blue, and red-blue-amber LEDs for lettuce. The Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology 99(6):721–737
Rahman, M. S., S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2023. A study on evaporative cooling capacity of a novel green wall to control ventilating air temperature. Journal of Building Engineering 77(2023):107466.
Luo, L., X. Jiang, Y. Yu, E.R.A. Samy, M. Lefsrud, S. Sun. 2023. Eff-3DPSeg: 3D organ-level plant shoot segmentation using annotation-efficient point clouds. Plant Phenomics 5 (0080)
Wu, B.-S., M. Mansoori, K. Trumpler, P.W. Addo, S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2023. Amber (595-nm) light supplemented with narrow blue (430-nm) light yields greater tomato biomass than white LEDs. Plants 12(13), 2457
Addo, P.W., S. McPherson, V. Orsat, M. Lefsrud. 2023. Freeze-drying of Cannabis sativa L. using real-time relative humidity monitoring and mathematical modeling for the cannabis industry. Industrial Crops and Products 199(2023)116754.
Morello, V., V. Desaulniers Brousseau, N. Wu, B.S. S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2022. Light quality impacts vertical growth rate, phytochemical yield and cannabinoid production efficiency in Cannabis sativa. Plants 11:2982.
Maisonneuve, J., P. Pourmovahed, M.Lefsrud. 2022. Thermodynamic limits of using fertilizer to produce clean fertigation solution from wastewater via forward osmosis. Journal of Membrane Science. 647(April);120168
Seguin, R. M.G. Lefsrud, T. Delormier, J. Adamowski, H. Fyles. 2022. Interregional differences in agricultural development across circumpolar Canada. Arctic 75(1):38-55
Hitti, Y., J. Chapelat, B.S. Wu, M. Lefsrud. 2021. Design and Testing of Bioreceptive Porous Concrete: A New Substrate for Soilless Plant Growth. ACS Agricultural Science & Technology Journal 1(4):285-293.
Wu, B.S. S. MacPherson, M. G. Lefsrud. 2021. Filtering light-emitting diode spectra to investigate narrow wavelength effects on lettuce growth. Plants 10(6):1075
Silveira da Rosa, G., T.R. Martiny, G.L. Dotto, S. K. Vanga; D. Parrine, Y. Gariepy, M. Lefsrud, V. Raghavan. 2021. Recovery of value-added compounds from olive leaves using green extractions techniques. Sustainable Materials and Technology 28:1-6.
Yavari, N., R. Tripathi, B.S. Wu, S. MacPherson, J. Singh, M. Lefsrud. 2021 The effect of light qualities on plant physiology, photosynthetic, and stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0247380
Warner, R., B.S. Wu, S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2021. A review of strawberry photobiology research and its flavonoid profile in controlled environment. Frontiers in Plant Science 12:611893.
Loganathan, B.G., V. Orsat; M. Lefsrud. 2021. Utilizing the microalgal biomass of Chlorella variabilis and Scenedesmus obliquus produced from the treatment of dairy wastewater as a biofertilizer. Journal of Plant Nutrition 44(10):1486-1497.
Wu, B.-S., Y. Hitti, S. MacPherson, V. Orsat, M. G. Lefsrud. 2020. Comparison and perspective of conventional and LED lighting for photobiological and industry applications. Environmental and Experimental Botany 171:103953.
Wu, B.-S., A.-S. Rufyikiri, V. Orsat, M. G. Lefsrud. 2019. Re-interpreting the photosynthetically action radiation (PAR) curve in plants. Plant Science 289C (2019) 110272.
Eichhorn Bilodeau, S., B. S. Wu, A.S. Rufyikiri, S. MacPherson, M. Lefsrud. 2019. An Update on Plant Photobiology and Implications for Cannabis Production. Frontiers in Plant Science 10:296:1-15.
Yavari, N., M. Lefsrud. 2019. Proteomic analysis provides insights into Arabidopsis thaliana response under narrow-wavelength LED of 595 nm. Journal of Proteomics and Bioinformatics 12(8): 507
Backer, R. G.M., P. Rosenbaum, V. McCarty, S. Eichhorn Bilodeau, D. Lyu, M. B. Ahmed, W. G. Robinson, M. Lefsrud, O. Wilkins, D.L. Smith. Closing the yield gap for cannabis: -omics tools for crop improvement and innovative production practices to maximize yields. Frontiers in Plant Science 10:495:1-15
Parrine Sant'Ana, D.V., B.S. Wu, B. Muhamma, K. Rivera, D. Pappin, X. Zhao, M. Lefsrud. 2018. Proteome modifications on tomato under extreme high light induced-stress. Proteome Science 16(20):1-15.
McCartney, L., M. Lefsrud. 2018. Field Trials of the Natural Ventilation Augmented Cooling (NVAC) Greenhouse. Biosystems Engineering. 174:159-172.
Ahmad, S., R. Kaur, M. Lefsrud, J. Singh. 2018. Investigation of IRAP transposon based molecular markers for analysis of genetic diversity in pea germplasm. Legume Research. 401:1-6
McCartney, L., M. Lefsrud. 2018. Protected Agriculture in Extreme Environments: A Review of Controlled Environment Agriculture in Tropical, Arid, Polar and Urban Locations. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 34(1):1-21
Madadian, E., V. Orsat, M. Lefsrud. 2017. Comparative study of temperature impact on air gasification of various types of biomass in a research- scale down-draft reactor. Energy and Fuels 31(4), 4045-4053.
Both, A.J., L. Benjamin, J. Franklin, G. H. Holroyd, L. D. Incoll, M. G. Lefsrud and G. Pitkin. 2015. Guidelines for Measuring and Reporting Environmental Parameters for Experiments in Greenhouses. Plant Methods 11(43):1-18.
