Short List for Oregon Wine Research Post

One of five candidates will direct institute and take a university tenure track

Corvallis, Ore. -- A new round of interviews begins this week for director of the Oregon Wine Research Institute (OWRI). The institute called for candidates earlier this year and came up with a short list of five contenders.

The list includes well-known figures in the Northwest wine industry and candidates from Florida, North Carolina and Texas, attracted by the promise of a tenure-track position at Oregon State University as part of the directorship.

“We were never going to get a candidate who would be up to the task without offering tenure as a part of it,” said David Adelsheim, owner of Adelsheim Vineyard in Newberg, Ore. An instrumental figure in the establishment of the institute and one of three industry representatives on the current search committee, Adelsheim said he’s pleased with the candidates who stepped forward. “We’ve got people who didn’t apply last time applying this time. People on this short list appear to have impressive credentials, impressive backgrounds.”

The candidates include:

• Greg Jones, professor, Department of Environmental Studies, Southern Oregon University, whose work on climate and its impact on vineyards is internationally known;

• Jim Kennedy, research manager for chemistry, Australian Wine Research Institute, for the past year; before that, an associate professor with Oregon State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology;

• Edward Hellman, professor of viticulture and extension specialist, Texas AgriLife Extension and Texas Tech University, Lubbock, whose research investigates the physiological basis of grape variety adaptation to climate and has worked to develop a GIS-based site-assessment tool for Texas vineyards;

• Neil Shay, professor and department head, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Florida, previously a nutritional scientist with the Kellogg Co.;

• John L. Havlin, professor, Department of Soil Science and coordinator of Distance Education, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, who has researched nutrient management in vinifera grapes.

Each will participate in a three-day interview process open to members of the industry. Each candidate will include a presentation of his vision for the wine research institute, a research seminar and a day of direct engagement with industry members.

The institute followed a similar process last year, interviewing a short list of three candidates. That process concluded last June without consensus. Oregon State and the industry agreed to better define expectations for the director’s position, which happened under the guidance of newly installed dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Sonny Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy gave the position a greater academic orientation, with responsibilities less focused on fundraising, outreach and administration activities than research and the development of “collaborative and interdisciplinary research relationships with other OSU units, centers and institutes.” The professorship associated with the institute became a tenure-track position, which made it more attractive to potential candidates while extending the value of the more than $2 million industry has raised in support of the institute.

The university will fund three-quarters of the position, search committee chair Dr. Robert McGorrin told Wines & Vines earlier this year. The change allows the university to extend the length of industry’s funding from five years to upwards of 20 years.

“The governor had added 4.5 positions to the dean’s budget about two years ago, so part of one of those positions will be used for the director,” McGorrin explained. “Nine months of the position will be from the college and tenure commitment, and three months will be paid by the industry.”

The academic role also provides a measure of job security to the director in the event industry, shy of tenuring a director, objected to the director’s performance.

“The wine industry didn’t want to buy into the idea of tenure,” Adelsheim told Wines & Vines. The new arrangement is similar to that by which a professor who heads a department receives a fee for the added administrative duties in addition to his or her salary.

“The university will pay for the tenured professor position and the industry will pay the extra monies that go to underwriting somebody like an industry director,” Adelsheim said. “This strikes a compromise between industry wanting somebody they can fire if they’re not performing, and OSU’s -- and ultimate ly the institute’s—need to offer tenure in order to attract somebody of sufficient caliber.”

The new director is slated officially to assume his responsibilities July 1.