Horticultural Lighting​ for Architectural Spaces

Hannah Ball is the Technical Sales Specialist for RAYN Growing Systems and helps growers and researchers find the best lighting solution for their applications. A key part to matching customers with lighting systems, Hannah creates light simulations to ensure systems are optimized and meet project specifications. Previously, Hannah was a Plant Genetics Lab Manager at the University of Wyoming Research and Extension Center. There she performed genetic transformations and maintained plant material in tissue culture. Hannah then worked at Plenty as a Research Associate of Lighting. Researching the quality, duration, and intensity of light necessary to reach crop goals. She has been educating researchers and growers on RAYN Growing Systems capabilities for two years. Hannah holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology with minors in Horticulture and Wildlife and Fisheries Biology Management from the University of Wyoming in 2017 and a Master of Science in Secondary Education from Black Hills State University in 2023.

Yan Ren-Butcher, Ph.D., is a Technical Sales Plant Scientist at RAYN Growing Systems (parent company-ETC). After earning her Ph.D. in Horticulture Science from Texas A&M University in 2011, Yan began her professional career as a Plant Scientist at Phillips Research, the lighting company. In addition to managing various research projects with universities, she co-published the results of multiple studies in peer-reviewed journals. In 2015, she started a Product Manager role at Hubbell Lighting to facilitate photobiology findings into new product developments. Afterwards, she shifted back to the scientific world and served as Director of Horticulture Science at Illumitex, a leading LED horticultural lighting company, until August 2019. Her job focused primarily on providing horticultural LED lighting educational trainings and scientific contents for marketing materials (such as white papers, grower guides and blogs), leading product trials, collaborating with research institutions and universities, as well as providing sales support to customers/growers. She represented previous companies as a member of several standard development committees. With her years of work experience in horticultural lighting for controlled environmental agriculture (CEA), she joined an indoor vertical farming company, 80 Acres Farms, from 2021 to 2022 as a Plant Scientist, to lead multiple research projects helping improve grow recipes in several leafy green crops.

Yan possesses countless years of experience, focusing largely on helping to bridge the knowledge gap between lighting and horticulture to ensure her customers understand the value of lighting technology to discover the right lighting solutions for their applications. She also enjoyed being a conference speaker / guest lecturer to teach fundamental or advanced level classes to illustrate effects of light on plant growth and development as well as LED applications in Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA).