Mat Rogers
Bio
Mat Rogers is an agroecological engineer and doctoral candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. Rogers’ work is focused on engineered solutions for sustainable agriculture and ecological design in a future of limited capital, energy scarcity, and human-modified Earth systems.
Rogers’s dissertation project is a feasibility assessment of the deployment of vegetated agricultural drainage ditches as natural treatment systems for pesticides in agroecosystems. He has won support for his research from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, UC Toxics Research and Teaching Program, and State Water Resources Control Board.
Rogers has consulted on projects such as onsite wastewater treatment, intensive permaculture garden design, rainwater recycling, wetland living machines, living roofs, and riparian habitat restoration. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (2001) and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2002), where he specialized in water resources and ecological engineering.
Rogers is the executive director of the nonprofit Agrariana and a frequent contributor to the Agrariana blog. His essays can also be found on The Ethicurean and Oakland Local.
Rogers attributes his early childhood immersion in the forests, farms, and waters along the Missouri River, near the rural community of Hermann, Missouri, with sparking his interest in natural systems. He currently lives and works in the Piedmont Avenue community of Oakland, California with his wife Jennifer.
