2023 Undergraduate Lab Position

Watrelot’s lab is seeking an undergraduate student to work from June to December 2023 on grape and wine chemistry.

This position involves work in the vineyard of the ISU Horticulture Research Station to help collecting berries throughout the ripening season, and in the chemistry lab in the department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, to help rigorously peeling berries, extracting phenolic compounds, analyzing grape juice and wine chemistry including degree Brix, pH, Titratable acidity, phenolic compounds content. The student will be also involved as a research assistant in the preparation of solutions, in the data compilation and analysis and in the redaction of reports.

The position may also be involved occasional support for workshops and field day, such as set-up, clean-up, and survey analysis.

This position will begin in June 2023 and will continue through the summer (approx. 15-20 hours per week) until the end of December (8-10 hours per week at the beginning of the fall semester). The hourly pay rate will be $12.

Job Skills/ Requirements

• Some chemistry lab coursework experience
• Grape and wine science knowledge and interest
• Motivation to learn new techniques
• Willingness to work in a team and take direction from multiple people
• Attention to detail and use common sense
• Time management, organizational, and record-keeping skills

Please send your resume and a cover letter explaining your interest in grape and wine chemistry and your background to Dr. Aude Watrelot at watrelot@iastate.edu

 

• June 2022: Yiliang Cheng is the award winner of the Best Flash Talk of Enology at the 73rd ASEV conference, in San Diego, CA.

 

• April 20th 2022: 16th Symposium on undergraduate research and creative expression. Carmen Vavra presented her lab work on the "evolution of red wine quality over time".

 

• For some news about what happened in Watrelot's lab in 2021: check out the last newsletter article here: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/what-happened-in-2021-in-watrelots-lab/

• August 11th 2021: ISU wine grape field day offered at the ISU Horticulture Research Station

• July- August 2021: Research projects on grape maturity and leaf removal have started again.

• December 2020: Check out our new article published in Food Hydrocolloids journal on the use of tribology on model saliva and grape tannins: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2020.106522

• November 2020: Research is still going on in the lab right before Thanksgiving!

As " Le Chat" said: "Some wines improve over time" "But, this year will get better only with wine"

• August 26th 2020

Data collection and harvest with the lab members. Grape harvest...not cantaloupe harvest!

 

• August 10th 2020:

The "Derecho" storm damaged the Horticulture Research Station and many plants. The grapevines were damaged as well and it will be more challenging to make wine from those grapes as part of the leaf removal research project.

 

• July 2020:

Evaluation of basic enological parameters of Marquette grapes during berry development and ripening. Veraison started July 25th!

 

• June 12th 2020:

Preparation of the Single High Wire Marquette vineyard of the Horticulture Research Station for the research project on the effect of leaf removal on tannins, cell wall material and grape and wine acidity.

 

• April 30th 2020:

Check out this review article about the chemistry and reactivity of tannins in Vitis species, published in the open access journal, Molecules:

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/9/2110/htm

 

• March 23rd-May 2020

Working from home on the HORT/FSHN 276 course, Extension program and research

 

• February 28th- March 8th 2020:

Presentation about the development of a tribological method to improve the understanding of red wine astringency, at the International Hydrocolloids Conference, Melbourne, AU

 

• February 21st 2020:

Intensive wine tasting workshop with the MGWII at the 2020 Cold Climate Conference, Rochester, MN

Presentation about "Polyphenols in grapes and wine" at the 2020 Cold Climate Conference, Rochester, MN

 

• January 30th 2020:

Daniel Acuna, FSHN undergraduate student, focused on the tannin concentration measurements in red wines from Vitis vinifera and interspecific hybrid grapes.

 

• January 23rd 2020:

Presentation about "Polyphenols in grapes and wine" at the 2020 Iowa Specialty Producers Conference, Ankeny, IA

 

• January 21st-22nd 2020:

Installation of the HPLC-DAD/FLD

 

• October 1st 2019:

Start of the research with Emily Kuelbs, undergraduate student, focusing on the extraction of tannins from Marquette grape skins and seeds as well as from red wines.

 

• September 2019:

Development of the research lab

Harvest of Marquette and La Crescent grapes at the Horticulture research station, ISU.