Start Disrupting - Tony Pierson talks about Shaping your World: Advice for young leaders, defining your path, and thinking about networking to create opportunity

Tony Pierson talks about Shaping your World: Advice for young leaders, defining your path, and thinking about networking to create opportunity

08/17/21 • 36 min

Tony is a falconry expert, serial entrepreneur and developer of leadership and talent. Pictured is Tony and VTCRC President & CEO Brett Malone, Ph.D.
Check out the latest book Tony is reading: Deep Survival: Who lives, who dies and why by Laurence Gonzales -- Tony says "It is about who panics and who stays calm in crisis situations. Very interesting and insightful book."

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undefined - “Good Chemistry" → VTCRC President & CEO Brett Malone discusses how drone technology is making Virginia’s wine industry a global player with Bruce Zoecklein & Mickey Cowden

“Good Chemistry" → VTCRC President & CEO Brett Malone discusses how drone technology is making Virginia’s wine industry a global player with Bruce Zoecklein & Mickey Cowden

About: Bruce Zoecklein & Mickey Cowden
Cowden Family Farms vineyard and Cowden Technologies

Creating Virginia wines that showcase the uniqueness of being grown and produced in the Appalachian Region.

Enology and Viticulture @ Virginia Tech

Research in enology is focused primarily in the area of grape and wine flavor components in addition to evaluation of vineyard management and processing alternatives. The influence of grapevine canopy management on the incidence of fruit rot metabolites and their effect on native grape aroma components is currently being investigated. Viticultural and enological practice affecting grape phenols and their polymerization and stabilization is also investigated. The evaluation of new cultivars and the wines produced from those cultivars attempts to provide practical information to enhance the growth and development of the Virginia wine industry.

Emphasis Areas

Relationships between vineyard management and grape aroma components
Grape and wine flavor component isolation and characterization
Grape and wine phenols and phenol stability
Processing methodologies for flavor enhancement
Evaluation of new cultivars

The Analytical Services Laboratory, part of the Wine/Enology Grape Chemistry Group at Virginia Tech, was established to fulfill the analysis requirements of the regional wine industry.

The goal of this analysis program is to provide very rapid turn-around, with optimum precision and accuracy.

Designed as a fee-based, full-service enology laboratory, we provide chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory analyses, including standardized reagents. The services are available to wineries in any state, including importers and wholesalers. Additionally, we provide analytic procedures to the individual wineries as requested. These procedures are equipment-relevant, and do not necessarily reflect the types of analyses performed at the Enology Service Lab.

For data reporting a secure website has been established. Results of analyses are only available to the individual winemaker and to select staff members of the Enology Service Lab. The data is posted as results are obtained. Results of previous analysis are continuously maintained, allowing winemakers to see trends in their juice, must, or wine samples. The website is continuously monitored for security and system back-ups are performed daily to provide the utmost in stability, security, and availability.

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undefined - “Do you think the first human to set foot on Mars has been born yet?” Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA, thinks so.

“Do you think the first human to set foot on Mars has been born yet?” Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA, thinks so.

Virginia Tech alumnus, Dave Lavery: LinkedIn
For over a decade, David Lavery led the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Telerobotics Technology Development Program, with responsibility for content and direction of robotics and planetary exploration research efforts.
Under his leadership the program was transformed into a world-class robotics technology and systems development program impacting NASA flight programs, other government robotics projects, and the entire robotics industry. Among the major products of Lavery's research program were the Sojourner Mars rover, the first robotic rover ever successfully placed on another planet; a free-flying robotic camera used on the Space Shuttle; Dante I and II robotic volcano explorers; and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC), to transfer robotic technologies developed by NASA into the commercial robotics industry. As Program Executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA, Mr. Lavery is currently responsible for two Mars Exploration missions (2008 and 2009), the design and development oversight of the next generation of robotic Mars exploration spacecraft, the NASA Astrobiology Field Laboratory, and the Mars Advanced Technology Program. He has published more than 30 technical papers on robotic systems and technology.
Lavery's current professional commitment and involvement includes the creation of the NASA Robotics Alliance Project (RAP) to inspire K-12 students in robotics, a Fellow of the National User Group Advisory Council and the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, and National Executive Advisory Board member of FIRST Robotics.