Viticulture and Enology: innovation meets tradition [VENIT]

Some of the students from the VENIT 2021/22 program shared with us their feedback on how VENIT contributed to changes in their career. Click here to see the feedback.

Esmaeil Nasrollahiazar, one of the 2nd edition Master Venit students, has just achieved the prestigious position as Viticulture Extension Educator at the MSU Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center.

I had my master's degree in Viticulture and Enology from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza in November 2018. Then, I came to Michigan State University (MSU) as a visiting Scholar and I started to work in Viticulture and Enology lab with Dr. Paolo Sabatini.
I applied for a key position at MSU about 3 months ago, and I was competing with 25 other very good candidates (viticulturists) to get this position. The MSU search committee offered me the position after a very complicated recruiting process with lots of criteria.
In this position, I will work as a Viticulture Extension Educator at the MSU Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center and work with more than 70 commercial wineries and wineries in NW Michigan, which is one of the main American Viticultural Areas (AVA) in North America.
I feel completely comfortable to train NW Michigan grape growers and offer some advice to the region's wine producer because I learned and prepared perfectly for the real world of work at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Poni and his amazing team.

Congratulations Esmaeil!!
We are happy that we were able to support you in achieving your goal, it's great to see our students achieving such important goals with passion and determination
We wish you to continue your work at your best, always trying to grow as both as a professional and as a person and to have a career up to your dreams.

The chair committee