Melissa Werkema is the owner of Future Analytics Inc. She grew up in Blackfalds, Alberta and from a young age she has always had a passion for chemistry and understanding the world’s chemical interactions. She obtained a Chemical Science Diploma from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. From there she gained work experience at an independent lab in Burnaby doing testing for fruits, vegetables and honey for pesticides and herbicides. Eventually she applied to join an archaeological dig in Israel where she studied the chemical analysis of plant residues in ceramics. She furthered her education in Israel by getting onto a research project that built up a reference library for plants and herbs and their connection to soil analysis. After she completed her work in Israel, she came back to Canada and started her own company in hopes to apply and spread her plant science knowledge to farms and greenhouses.