The UC Davis Coffee Center receives a $1 million endowment from the Specialty Coffee Association
New fellowship will support aspiring students from coffee-producing countries
By ESHA KANNAN— science@theaggie.org
Housed within the College of Engineering, the UC Davis Coffee Center is the first academic research center in the United States solely dedicated to studying coffee. Ongoing research is multidisciplinary; the center combines biological, chemical and physical sciences with the social sciences to generate a cohesive understanding of coffee.
Recently, the UC Davis Coffee Center received a $1 million endowment for initiating and sustaining graduate programs in coffee science from the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), a global trade association that supports the specialty coffee industry through research, education and collaboration worldwide.
The $1 million will be used steadily over the years. About 4% of the endowment (approximately $40,000) will fund an SCA research initiative. The rest of the money will be for center-specific opportunities.
William Ristenpart is a professor in the department of chemical engineering at UC Davis and the co-director of the UC Davis Coffee Center. Ristenpart explains how this endowment can support aspiring coffee scientists internationally.
"We are really excited to partner with the Specialty Coffee Association on this new fellowship,” Ristenpart said. “The goal is to support graduate students from coffee-producing countries, to directly support them on cutting-edge science and scholarship focused on coffee."
Tonya Kuhl, a professor of chemical engineering and co-director of the center, explained how the endowment will leave a lasting impact on the Coffee Center.
"UC Davis has the first academic center in the nation focused on coffee, with a new state-of-the-art facility, but the best building in the world is no good unless it has excellent people in it,” Kuhl said. “This new SCA endowment will help us recruit talented graduate students from around the world, so that we can help train the next generation of leaders for the global coffee community."
With the new fellowship, the center hopes to bring more researchers from coffee-producing regions into its labs, connecting the people who grow coffee with the science behind it. More information about the center’s past and ongoing work can be found on its publications page. For more information on up-to-date news, educational posts and video demonstrations of coffee science in action, follow the center on Instagram at @ucdaviscoffeecenter.
Written by: Esha Kannan— science@theaggie.org