Geneticist · Network strategist · Maker

Growing life under light.
Connecting people across the Earth.

I'm Kayla North. I designed LED light recipes that help crops grow, including for growing in space. Now I lead peering strategy and partnerships for Starlink at SpaceX, working to bring more of the world online.

01 About

Hands in the ground, eyes on the sky.

I grew up on a farm in Florida, close enough to Cape Canaveral to watch the shuttle climb out over the trees. Most days I had my hands in the soil, and on launch days my eyes were on the sky. It took me a while to see those were the same curiosity.

I trained as a geneticist and spent years studying how plants read light. That work became specific: LED light prescriptions, spectral recipes tuned to how a crop grows, for commercial production and for controlled environments where every photon counts, including growing food in space. I've published that research twice.

Today I lead Starlink's internet peering strategy and partnerships at SpaceX. Different medium, same question: how do you design a system so that what needs to flow, flows? For plants it was light. For people it's connection.

Away from work I make photographs, build things out of wood, write poems, and practice music, which I'm still learning. I'm also writing a book. I like work that rewards patience.

02 Work

Two systems, one way of thinking.

One system runs on photons and biology, the other on fiber, satellites, and agreements between networks. Both come down to the same thing: understand the system, then design what flows through it.

Kayla North in a white lab coat and gloves, holding a pipette over a small tube at a lab bench, with a centrifuge and shelves of lab supplies behind her.

Previously

Space agriculture & plant genetics

I studied how specific wavelengths of light shape the way plants grow, then turned that into practical LED light prescriptions for commercial crops.

A dim growth room lit by LEDs: stacked shelves glow red, magenta, and blue, with a person seated at a bench in the foreground.
A grow-light room under red and blue LEDs: the raw material of a light recipe.
  • Light spectra: spectral recipes matched to a crop's biology and growth stage, rather than one-size-fits-all lighting.
  • Space & controlled environments: research relevant to growing food where sunlight isn't an option, from indoor farms to space.
  • Publications: two peer-reviewed papers on plant response to light (see Research).
  • Impact: [One sentence on a real, public outcome of this work]

Now

Starlink peering strategy & partnerships, SpaceX

I lead how Starlink connects with the rest of the internet: the agreements and relationships that let traffic move efficiently between our network and the networks people already rely on.

  • Peering strategy: deciding where and how Starlink interconnects so people get faster, more reliable service.
  • Partnerships: working with network operators, content providers, and exchanges around the world.
  • Market & infrastructure expansion: helping bring service to new countries and regions across continents.
  • Outcome: more people, in more places, with a usable connection to the internet.

03 Research

Publications

Peer-reviewed work on how plants respond to light, and how to control LED spectra to grow them well. Each one has a plain-language summary.

A DNA gel glowing under UV light: bright pink bands in six lanes on a violet background, with a ladder of reference bands in the leftmost lane.
DNA, made visible under UV light. The genetics underneath the light work.
[Year] · [Journal name]

[Paper title]

[Author list, with Kayla North in bold if desired]

In plain language: [What question did this ask? What did you find? Why does it matter for growers or for growing food in space? Two or three sentences.]

Read the paper
[Year] · [Journal name]

[Paper title]

[Author list]

In plain language: [What question did this ask? What did you find? Why does it matter? Two or three sentences.]

Read the paper

04 Current focus

Connecting the places the internet skipped.

Billions of people still don't have a reliable connection. My focus right now is the less visible part of fixing that: building the peering relationships and partnerships that let a satellite network plug cleanly into the global internet, country by country. When it works, nobody notices. They just get online.

Also in progress: a book. [Optional: one line on the subject, or keep it a quiet tease]

05 Personal

The quieter work.

These aren't side projects. They're practices: things I return to because they slow me down and make me pay attention.

Photography

Mostly natural light. Fields, sky, textures, people when they forget the camera is there.

[Caption / place]
[Caption]
[Caption]
[Caption]
[Caption]

Woodworking

I like that wood doesn't negotiate. Measure twice, follow the grain, sand longer than you think.

Process notes

  1. [Current project, e.g. what you're building and from what wood]
  2. [A step, a mistake, or something you learned]
  3. [Optional: a process photo]

Poetry

Short poems, mostly. A way of noticing.

Sample. Replace with your own.

The seed does not ask the sky
how far it goes.
It leans toward the light it has
and calls that up.

[Title, year]

Music

Still learning, and honestly not that good yet. I practice anyway. Getting a little better each week is the point.

Instrument
[e.g. guitar / piano]
Working on
[a song, a scale, a habit]
Listening to
[artist or album]

06 Contact

Say hello.

For conversations about plant-light science, connectivity, writing, or making things. I read everything, and reply when I can.

Only used to reply to you.