Catherine Dadmun, PhD Student

Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, College of Charleston, 2018

Bachelor of Arts, French and Francophone Studies, College of Charleston, 2018

Master of Science, Food Science & Technology, Cornell University, 2020

Favorite Wine: Amarone

 

Catherine completed a dual degree in 2018 in Chemistry and French at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. In an independent study during her semester abroad in La Rochelle, France, she studied the history and economics of French wines and Cognac. In her senior year of undergraduate studies, she combined these two interests in a Bachelor’s Essay in French on the Molecular Chemistry of Aromas and Flavors of Organic Wines in France. She decided to pursue Food Science after an NSF-funded Chemistry Undergraduate Research Experience at Virginia Tech, where she did research on milk in the Food Science & Technology Department. She began her pursuit for a Masters of Science in Food Science & Technology at Cornell in 2018 and defended her research in August of 2020. She decided to stay to continue research in wine chemistry in Anna Katharine’s lab as a PhD student. She has been awarded a grant to complete half of her PhD research at the Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté in the Dijon, France. She will spend 18 months studying at the French university, and then complete the rest of her PhD at Cornell.

Current Research Focus: My MS work focused on the evolution and distribution of anthocyanins in interspecific red hybrid wines. Hybrid grapes are critical for vineyards with difficult growing conditions, but many hybrid grapes produce unusual or unstable wine color. This research provided the basework for understanding the types and distribution of pigments in some economically significant cultivars so that we can further understand the mechanisms involved in hybrid color distribution and evolution. The overall goal is to improve future growing techniques for the optimization of hybrid red wine color and ageability. My PhD research will focus on the interactions that hydrolysable tannins, found in oak, have with both mono- and diglucoside anthocyanins that are found in interspecific hybrid grapes.