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60 WINES&VINES June 2016 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS WINE EAST Natural Corks Champagne Corks Twinline Corks Bartops VISION Synthetic Corks G-Cap® Screw Caps Sales Representatives: Chris & Liz Stamp info@lakewoodcork.com lakewoodcork.com 4024 State Route 14 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 607-535-9252 607-535-6656 Fax PIONEER INNOVATOR PARTNER P.O. Box 540, 8 Ashfi eld Road, Rt. 116, Conway, MA 01341 Call us for a catalog 800-634-5557 www.oescoinc.com GRAPE EXPECTATIONS Protect your crop with SmartNet from OESCO Bird exclusion netting • Insect netting • Deer exclusion netting • Trellis supplies Use our QR code to order anytime K ingsville, Ohio—The Ohio State Uni- versity recently announced that the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences hired three scientists to fill positions related to the grape and wine industry. Andrew Kirk has been ap- pointed research specialist and manager of the Ashtabula Agricultural Research Station in Kingsville, Ohio; Dr. Elizabeth Long joined the faculty as assistant professor of entomology; and Dr. Melanie Lewis Ivey will be assistant professor of plant pathology as of June 2016. Dr. Imed Dami, associate professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences, told Wines & Vines, "We're very happy to have the grape team full again." He noted that the wine industry has been expanding quickly and stressed how important it is that the three new hires will have extension assignments to help the industry. (See "Revisiting the Future of Cooperative Extension" on page 30.) All three positions are funded 100% by OSU. While Kirk will be responsible for manag- ing the 25-acre Ashtabula Agricultural Re- search Station, the position that he is filling has been redefined to include research and outreach programming. "I want to be respon- sive to the needs of the industry," Kirk told Wines & Vines. "An early priority is weekly meetings with growers, then I want to set up some group meetings." After graduating from Ohio State in 2011, he worked during 2011-12 as an apprentice at Markko Vineyard in Conneaut, Ohio. Earlier this year he received a master's degree in horticulture from Lincoln University in New Zealand. Long, who earned her Ph.D. in plant, insect and microbial sciences from the University of Missouri in 2013, is based at the Ohio Agricul- tural Research and Development Center (OARDC) campus of Ohio State in Wooster, Ohio. She started work at OSU on Jan. 1. As an assistant professor of entomology, Long will be responsible for work with grapes and also muck soil vegetables and integrated pest man- agement. She earned a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from North Carolina State University in 2007. A 2011 graduate of OSU with a Ph.D. in plant pathology, Ivey is currently an assistant professor at Louisiana State University. After finishing her bachelor's degree in microbiology at the University of Guelph in 1996, she re- ceived a master's degree in plant sciences from the University of Western Ontario in 1998. She will start doing research on grapevine diseases important to Ohio growers in June. Today Ohio has 178 wineries, according to Donniella Winchell, executive director of the Ohio Wine Association. According to an eco- nomic impact study released in 2014 by the Ohio Grape Industries Program, the industry produces 1.2 million gallons of wine per year, contributes $786 million to Ohio's economy and employs more than 5,000 people. —Linda Jones McKee Ohio State University Fills Three Grape Industry Positions Andrew Kirk, Elizabeth Long and Melanie Lewis (from left) are new hires at The Ohio State University.