Please see the full Press Release PDF below.
Robert Mondavi Institute Awards Pentair Graduate Fellowship to Olivia Yu
The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis, awarded the 2013 Pentair Graduate Fellowship to Olivia Yu. She was honored in a ceremony held on the evening of Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at the institute.
The fellowship was made possible through the institutes Industry Partnership Program, which Pentair joined in May 2013. Pentair is a global water, fluid, thermal management, and equipment protection partner based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The company provides industry leading products, services, and solutions that deliver the adaptive, industry-leading solutions that help ensure a safer, healthier future for all.
In picture: From left: Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director, Robert Mondavi Institute; Todd Gleason, Sr. VP, Growth, Pentair; Olivia Yu; Amy Skoczlas Cole, VP of Corporate Citizenship, Pentair; Phil Rolchigo, VP of Global Technology, Pentair; Kerri Steenwerth, assistant adjunct professor, Department of Viticulture and Enology; David Block, Chair, Department of Viticulture and Enology.
"The Industry Partnership Program was launched in the spring of 2012 to forge a stronger alliance between select companies in the food and beverage industries and faculty and students at the Robert Mondavi Institute," said Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director. "We are thrilled to be able to support such outstanding graduate students in this way."
Olivia Yu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Viticulture and Enology and was chosen through a competitive selection process. She will receive $40,000 for one year to support her research on the impacts of winery wastewater irrigation on a vineyards soil aggregate composition, stability of soil organic matter protected by aggregates, and resultant greenhouse gas emissions with respect to different under- vine management practices.
"I am very excited to work with Olivia and engage in the partnership with Pentair," said Dr. Kerri Steenwerth, a USDA/ARS, research soil scientist in the Department of Viticulture and Enology and the Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit. "Olivia is an inquisitive, creative, and driven researcher who is a key presence in our research program by fostering a collaborative environment critical to advancing personnel and their studies in the laboratory. This fellowship allows her the opportunity to advance her studies of wastewater reuse in agriculture as well as continue with her own outreach efforts in STEM education." The STEM program promotes education in science, technology, engineering, and math.
"Pentair is pleased to be part of the Robert Mondavi Institute's Industry Partnership Program and very happy to support such an outstanding graduate student," said Phil Rolchigo, Pentairs vice president of Global Technology. "We look forward to the results from Olivias research."