WSU’s Moyer Honored By the American Society for Enology & Viticulture

One Washington State university professor was recently honored for her work promoting the wine industry through research.  WSU associate  professor and Extension specialist, Michelle Moyer was recently awarded the 2020 Extension Distinction Award from ASEV, American Society for Enology & Viticulture.

Awarded by the nation’s preeminent viticulture and enology organization, the Extension Distinction Award is based on an individual’s advancement of the field of viticulture or enology in one of two ways; either through outstanding contributions of “information in enology or viticulture through his or her extension program” or “the translation of novel research findings into commercially applicable tools for enologists or viticulturists.”

Moyer said she was shocked when she was awarded.  “I almost didn’t accept it,” she said. “I thought it should go to someone else. When you look at the list of those who have won this award, it is very humbling.”

The nomination process for the award is completely anonymous.

That Moyer has been a professor at WSU since 2011, where she has played an important role in Extension with statewide responsibilities, helping transfer the latest research into the hands of Washington’s growers and the viticulture industry at large. In this capacity, she has developed workshops, educational programs, and taught classes in WSU’s V&E Certificate Program.

And as Project Director of FRAME Network (Fungicide Resistance Assessment Mitigation and Extension), Moyer won a $4.7 million grant for her ongoing work on powdery mildew.  As recipient of the 2020 Extension Distinction Award, Moyer will speak at the ASEV annual conference in June where she will present her talk, “Land Grants and Grapes: Traditional Approaches for Modern Extension Programs.”

Essentially, I will be talking about how to use modern tools to deliver a more traditional style content,” Moyer said.  “We’ve a learned a lot over 150 years.  So, we tend to think of moving forward, but we don’t often look back.”

Moyer also contends that if we’ve learned a lot about agriculture in the last 150 years, we may have forgotten some too.  In her June talk at the ASEV conference, Moyer will address both the old and the new.

“The older generation teases the new generation for not having the knowledge, and the newer generation teases the older one for not having the latest tools. What I want to do is bring those conversations together.”

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