New month, another award for Penn State's enology extension educatorThe career work of Dr. Molly Kelly was acknowledged by the American Society for Enology & Viticulture.
It has been a year of awards for Penn State Enology Extension Educator Dr, Molly Kelly. She recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Enology & Viticulture (ASEV), several months after being named the winner of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association’s (ASWA) Wine Grape Productivity Award. Martin Bucknavage, Penn State Extension, Food Safety and Quality Program Team Lead, nominated Kelly for the ASEV award, noting that she has worked to meet the needs of winemakers throughout the region through offering hands-on workshops, providing numerous winery site visits to wineries, troubleshooting wine quality issues, and conducting needed research.” Nathan Eason, chair of ASEV-eastern section board of directors, presented her with the award. The “eastern section” of ASEV is a chapter of ASEV international, and is a geographical area encompassed by the section includes all U.S. states and Canadian provinces with territory east of the Continental Divide (eight states on the West Coast are not included and are instead, part of international ASEV. The organization’s purpose is provide forums for the presentation, discussion and publication (through the official journal of the ASEV of such research and technology developments for the advancement of wines, and the solution of problems of specific interest to the enology and viticulture of grapes grown in the eastern United States and Canada. Kelly began her career at the New York State Department of Health as a Biodefense Team microbiologist. She completed her PhD at Virginia Tech, then worked at Virginia Polytechnical Institute as enology extension specialist. Before that, according to her bio, she was an enology instructor and winemaker at Surry Community College in North Carolina. In her current role for the past eight years, Kelly shares her expertise in enology, microbiology, wine analysis, production, and sanitation with those in the Pennsylvania industry and beyond. Bucknavage noted in his nominating letter that In addition to her “ongoing facility visits and regional meetings, Molly conducts research needed by the industry. This work includes impact of inadvertent contamination of grapes by Spotted Lantern Flies. This study looked at the impact of increasing numbers of SLF on wine basic chemistries, phenolics and sensory analysis. Results will be presented in an Eastern Viticulture and Enology Forum January 13, 2026. This research is the first of its kind in the country and is currently being submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Over 500 industry members have signed up for this webinar, including both national and international members.” He summed up Kelly’s contributions by saying that she “continues to deliver the highest level of programming to support the wine industry’s needs. She offers workshops and webinars to provide training; she provides ongoing communications to keep industry members up to date and conducts research pertinent to the needs of industry. She does many of these tasks single-handed and with little fanfare, as she is the only Extension Enologist in our ranks. I feel that this is the type of recognition she deserves.” The ASEV website, pulling info from the nomination, mentioned that Kelly “conducts applied research including the presence of non-Saccharomyces yeast on incoming fruit and its impact on wine volatile aromas. She recently received a grant to examine oxygen uptake in PA wines including bottling line audits across the state. She is also completing an on-line introduction to winemaking course for Penn State Extension.” |
