Food Science Doctoral Student Earns Grape and Wine Scholarships for Arkansas Grape Research

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Sarah Mayfield's doctoral research is "Physicochemical Properties of Wines Produced from Grapes Grown in Arkansas."

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sarah Mayfield, a food science doctoral student in U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, has earned three national scholarships from organizations that support the grape and wine industry.

Mayfield, who is from San Antonio, Texas, received the American Society for Enology and Viticulture President's Award for scholarship in enology, the American Wine Society Educational Foundation scholarship and the ASEV-Eastern Section scholarship. Mayfield is the first U of A student to receive all three of scholarships in the same year.

Her research is "Physicochemical Properties of Wines Produced from Grapes Grown in Arkansas." Mayfield is working with Renee Threlfall, food science researcher in enology and viticulture.

The scholarships are awarded to graduate students pursuing a degree in enology, viticulture or a curriculum emphasizing a science basic to the wine and grape industry.

Mayfield previously earned the Austrian Marshall Plan Scholarship, which allowed her to work on her doctoral research at TU Graz in Austria this past spring.

Mayfield, a Bumpers College honors graduate, has also previously received the American Oil Chemists' Society Analytical Division Student Award in 2017, and won Bumpers College's Honors Student Board Outstanding Thesis competition and was one of the college's First-Ranked Senior Scholars in 2015.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.