Food Scientist Threlfall Named ASHS Southern Region Distinguished Researcher

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Renee Threlfall's research and extension focuses on processing and postharvest storage of specialty crops (wine grapes, muscadine grapes, table grapes, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, hops, etc.) and value-added processing of horticultural crops.

Renee Threlfall, a research scientist in enology and viticulture at the U of A, has been named winner of the Julian Miller Sr. Distinguished Researcher Award.

The award is presented by the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences. It recognizes an outstanding record in research on one or more horticultural crops and in one or more areas of horticultural research for a period of 10 or more years.

Threlfall is a member of the faculty in the Department of Food Science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. She is also a researcher and scientist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment State, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture.

Threlfall has been in the department more than 30 years, and has a split appointment between research, extension and teaching.  

Her research and extension focuses on processing and postharvest storage of specialty crops (wine grapes, muscadine grapes, table grapes, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, hops, etc.) and value-added processing of horticultural crops. She has more than 40 refereed journal publications.

Threlfall teaches an introduction enology and viticulture class, Uncorked: Vines to Wines, each fall, and teaches enology, viticulture and sensory topics for grape and wine production in other food science classes. 

She is a member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture (ASEV), ASEV-Eastern Section, American Wine Society, American Society for Horticultural Science, North American Raspberry and Blackberry Association and American Society of Brewing Chemists. She is on the Extension and Outreach Committee for the National Grape Research Alliance, is a member of the Arkansas Association of Grape Growers and serves on the Arkansas Wine Producers Council. She is also director of the Arkansas Quality Wine Program.

ASHS represents a broad cross-section of the horticultural community - scientists, educators, students, landscape and turf managers, government, extension agents and industry professionals. Members focus on practices and problems in horticulture: breeding, propagation, production and management, harvesting, handling and storage, processing, marketing and use of horticultural plants and products.

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: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.