Who’s Making an Impact in the CEA World? Here Are the Big Award Winners
CEAg World recently announced the winners of the inaugural CEAg World Impact Awards. [Pictured from left] Kristin Zeit, CEAg World Content Lead; Gretchen Schimelpfenig, GLASE; Chieri Kubota, The Ohio State University; Erin and Brandon Moore (accepting on behalf of Erin’s father, Bill Ferguson, who passed away in October 2025); and Sam Bertram, OnePointOne. Photo courtesy of CEAg World
“The accomplishments of the four winners are truly impressive and a testament to their tenacity, creativity and dedication to the CEA space,” says Kristin D. Zeit, content lead for CEAg World. “It’s such an honor to be able to shine a light on their work in advancing food under cover.”
These annual awards, launched on July 7, 2025, recognize CEA trailblazers who are moving the future of protected agriculture forward. The winners of each award are listed below:
- Visionary Grower Award: Bill Ferguson, Riley Creek Farms
- Innovator Award: Sam Bertram, OnePointOne
- Emerging Leader Award: Gretchen Schimelpfenig, GLASE
- Educator/Researcher Award: Chieri Kubota, The Ohio State University
The CEAg World Impact Award winners were announced on Nov. 20 during the opening ceremony of the CEAg World Conference and Expo held in Durham, NC.
To learn more about the award winners and their accomplishments, a series of in-depth video interviews will be released in December as part of CEAg World’s CEAg Talks, a curated video series that highlights industry innovators, their impact stories and insights from across the controlled environment agriculture community, available at CEAgWorld.com/ceag-talks.
For more information about the CEAg World Impact Awards, please visit CEAgWorld.com/impact.
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