Honorary Research Lecture

Renowned Phenolic Wine Chemist to Present Honorary Research Lecture at the 75th ASEV National Conference

April 11, 2024

Respected professor emeritus and revered phenolic wine chemist Dr. Andrew Waterhouse of University of California, Davis, will present this year’s Honorary Research Lecture at the 75^th ASEV National Conference in Portland, Oregon, on June 19.

Waterhouse inherited Vernon Singleton’s (ASEV Honorary Research Lecture recipient in 1986) mission to study phenolic compounds after joining the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis in 1991.

Initially, the French Paradox directed Waterhouse’s early collaborations on resveratrol and health-related phenolic adsorption and metabolism studies. His current research focuses on phenolics in vineyard development as well as winemaking techniques, and wine oxidation studies that look at basic chemical pathways using modern analytical techniques. Waterhouse headed many projects, some with industry involvement including a large-scale productive oak barrel study and others that attracted public interest including studies on chocolate and antioxidants and, most recently, red wine headaches.

During three decades at UC Davis, Waterhouse was appointed to a number of leadership positions:

• He served as chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology
• recently as director of the Robert Mondavi Institute.
• He also served as chair of two graduate programs,
• as an associate dean of programs at Graduate Studies.
• He was in the inaugural class of Chancellor’s Fellow
• held the John Kinsella Endowed Chair.

Outside of UC Davis, Waterhouse served as an ASEV board member where he led a number of the Society’s symposia on topics ranging from wine and health to oak alternatives and oxidation. He was an associate editor for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV) for many years and is currently the co-editor-in-chief for the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

He has received a number of awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux. The second edition of his book, Understanding Wine Chemistry, co-authored with Gavin Sacks and David Jeffery, will be released this year.

“I am most grateful to the Society for this honor, but the real honorees are the many students and visitors who have had great ideas, and of course did most of the work. I hope Vern Singleton would be pleased as well,” said Waterhouse.

He received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

2023 Honorary Research Lecturer
What We Know About the Chemical Bases of Wine Aroma Perception

Dr. Vicente Ferreira

Anna Katharine Mansfield, Cornell University, New York

We are pleased to host our 2023 Honorary Research Lecturer Dr. Vicente Ferreira of Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.

The honorary research lecturer is granted to an individual with a current national or international reputation in his or her field of research who is also actively involved in scientific research.

Honorary Research Lecturer to Discuss Spatial Variations of Vineyard Environments at ASEV National Conference

Dr. Pat Bowen

April 7, 2022 Davis, CA

 The American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) is pleased to announce Dr. Pat Bowen, Honorary Research Associate for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, will be presenting the Honorary Research Lecture, “Spatial Revelations: Monitoring, Imaging and Mapping to Characterize Vineyard Environments,” at the 73^rd ASEV National Conference in San Diego, California, on June 22. ASEV honors a research lecturer who is actively involved in scientific research and has a current national or international reputation in his or her field of research.  

Dr. Bowen’s current research efforts are centered on the ecophysiology of wine grapes. She uses geographic information system (GIS) tools, sensor networks and aerial imaging to characterize spatial variations in vineyard environments. By doing this, she is able to inform approaches to precision vineyard management. Her GIS work has been used in British Columbia to describe local terroirs, guide sustainable management and define appellations.

Dr. Bowen studied at the University of California at Davis, where she received her PhD in 1987. She continued with postdoctoral research at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1990, she joined Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as a Research Scientist. She has led the Viticulture program at Summerland Research and Development Centre since 2000. Dr. Bowen is also a Professional Affiliate at Brock University’s Cool Climate Viticulture and Oenology Institute and an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia.

The 73^rd ASEV National Conference was held June 20-22, 2022, in San Diego, Calif.

Honorary Research Lecture to Explore a Path for Vineyards to Adapt in Rapidly Changing Environments

Dr. Hans Schultz

May 20, 2021 Davis, CA

The American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) is pleased to present this year’s Honorary Research Lecturer, Dr. Hans Schultz of Hochschule Geisenheim University in Germany. Dr. Schultz will be presenting the 2021 Honorary Research Lecture, “From Canopy Systems to Water Relations to Climate Change – An Unsteady Path in an Ever Changing Environment,” at the 72^nd ASEV National Conference on Thursday, June 24, at 11:15 a.m. PDT.

Dr. Schultz is the founding president of Hochschule Geisenheim University in Germany. He grew up in Germany’s Moselle-Valley, where his parents owned a small family-operated vineyard and winery. He received a bachelor of science degree in viticulture and enology from Geisenheim in Germany in 1983, a master of science in horticulture from the University of California, Davis (UCD) in 1986, and a doctorate in crop science from Geisenheim/University of Gießen (in cooperation with UCD) in 1989. He continued his post-doctoral work at UC Davis’ departments of viticulture and enology, ornamental horticulture and botany from 1990-1993 before joining a European research project at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique (today SupAgro) in Montpellier, France, in 1993. In 1995, he was appointed section head of the viticulture department at the Forschungsanstalt Geisenheim (Geisenheim Research Center, GRC) and a professor of viticulture at the Fachhochschule Wiesbaden/Geisenheim (University of Applied Sciences), Germany. In 1998, he was a visiting Professor at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. In April 2009, he was appointed director of the GRC, then in 2013, he became the President of the newly formed Geisenheim University. He has published 245 papers and has been working on many different topics with a focus on climate change adaptation research for more than 20 years.

He conceived an ongoing experiment that attempts to mimic carbon dioxide levels grapes might face in 2050, which was featured in foodandwine.com in February 2019.

The  72^nd ASEV National Conference, took place as a virtual conference on June 21-24, 2021.