Leigh Whittinghill

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Urban Design Lab

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Leigh Whittinghill is an Earth Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow working with the Urban Design Lab (UDL) and the Columbia Green Roof Consortium on green roof research. She is currently working on several projects: the stormwater monitoring of a rooftop farm; a survey to develop a characterization of green roof farms and their production practices; and a geographic information system (GIS) analysis of the rooftops of New York City to determine their potential for rooftop agriculture.

Whittinghill’s primary research interest is the use of green roof technology for vegetable production, including the impacts on the benefits of green roofs and the development of best management practices. While at Michigan State University, where she earned her PhD, she performed research on vegetable production in extensive green roof systems, the salt tolerance of common green roof plants, and carbon sequestration on ornamental landscapes and green roofs.

B.A. Biology, Middlebury College 2006; PhD Horticulture with a specialization in Environmental Science and Policy, Michigan State University, 2012