My oldest daughter is officially Dr. Sarah today(PHD).

Her dual undergrad and Masters degrees are in Food Science and Bio Chemistry.

Her PHD is in Food Science. She worked with chocolate the first two years of her PHD and wine the remaining three years.

She accepted a position with EJ Gallo Winery and will be moving to Modesto CA (BOOooo) in June.

All degrees are from the University of Arkansas.

Oh, she is 27 years old.

Yes, I am a very proud Papa.

Congratulations, doctor.

Congratulations!

How cool is it to have a PhD in Chocolate!!!

Congrats to her.

My daughter, also named Sarah, also has a PhD. But it's in Sociology, not nearly as cool a field.

Chocolate, wine, and Razorbacks.

Sounds like your daughter's got her priorities straight.

Congratulations!

Outstanding! Congratulations!

Congratulations, Dr. Sarah & SW_Sig!

So do we ask our chocolate questions here?

Wow! Congratulations and good reason to be proud.

Congratulations, 27 and PHD I'd be proud too!

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Congratulations, Dr. Sarah & SW_Sig!

So do we ask our chocolate questions here?

Or, since she signed on with Gallo, maybe wine pairings?

Congrats! you are justifiably proud.

Congratulations to your daughter!

Huge congrats to her! Sure you had a hand in getting her there.

Congrats to your daughter!!

Good for her. Great field and there’s good money to be had in it as well.

quote:

She accepted a position with EJ Gallo Winery and will be moving to Modesto CA (BOOooo) in June

Well, it's gotta be better than Johnson City, but still - Texas wines can use all the help they can get.

Congrats, Doc! Doc Daddy too - you obviously did something right!

Wow, very accomplished. Congratulations to her!

quote:

Well, it's gotta be better than Johnson City,

She graduated from Smithson Valley High School, so did her younger sister and brother, just a bit South of you, off Hwy 46 between 281 and New Braunfels.

Something she sent me awhile back about her research:

My focus is on grape and wine chemistry, more specifically improving the quality of wines produced from grapes that grow well in the Southeastern US.

The climate here makes it really difficult/expensive to grow wine grapes, especially the popular European varieties they grow in California (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, etc). So I do work with the flavor and color of wines made from popular "hybrid" species that are commonly grown in the South/Midwest as well as new wine grape breeding lines that the University of Arkansas has developed. I also do some stuff with muscadines.

Wine made from these kinds of grapes tends to not have as good of flavor as wines from California/Europe (or at least the flavor is different and isn't what people are used to) and a lot of times the color of the wine isn't as stable during storage- it starts to turn brown. So we do different things to the grapes in the vineyard and during wine production to try and improve these types of wine.

To determine if the things we did actually changed anything, we do a lot of analyses in the lab on the color and chemical composition. What I'm doing in Graz is a really detailed characterization of the aroma compounds in the wines. Then, when I get back to Arkansas, we will do actual sensory tests with people where we have them smell/taste the wine and describe it, rate different attributes, and rank which samples they like better.

That's quite a feather in your daughters cap. Congrats to both you and her!