Gerard Bot worked for about 35 years in the forefront of Dutch greenhouse technology. In this way he contributed to the high efficient greenhouse production facilities with low environmental footprint of nowadays. At retirement he combined a full professorship in Applied Physics at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, with the position of senior researcher in the Wageningen UR Greenhouse Technology group, so could link fundamental and applied research. The focus in his research was on the physical processes in indoor climate in agricultural buildings, so greenhouses, livestock buildings and storage facilities, with emphasis on the application of both dynamical and spatial distributed modelling. By calibrating and validating these models strong research tools were made available for the design of new greenhouse systems. Special attention was paid to the application and implementation of sustainable energy. After retirement he is still active as visiting professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing, PR China.
He was member of the board of editors of both the Journal of Biosystems Engineering and the Journal of Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, published about 170 papers and books, was invited many times as key-note speaker on various international symposia and conferences and also organized such events.
Through his cooperation with the disciplines involved in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) he got a good insight in the many aspects of CEA allowing him to write this APO CEA course.
Recently, in July 2018, the European Society of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng) honoured him with the 2018 EurAgEng Award of Merit – Scientific Understanding, in recognition of the depth and achievement of his work in Agrophysics in greenhouses, animal housing, climate control and crop production. According to EurAgEng “this award is given every two years to someone with an outstanding research record in agricultural engineering and who will have made a major contribution to Scientific Understanding that has been recognised internationally by others in research, extension, and/or commercial development and practice.”