Mayfield Receives Austrian Marshall Scholarship to Complete Food Science Doctoral Project

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Sarah Mayfield has completed a research project involving a healthier chocolate created with soy oil and is now working on wine made with grapes grown in Arkansas.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sarah Mayfield, a food science student in U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, has been selected to receive the Austrian Marshall Plan Scholarship.

The scholarship allows her to work on her doctoral research project at TU Graz in Austria from February through May in 2019.

Her research is "Physicochemical Properties of Wines Produced from Grapes Grown in Arkansas." Mayfield, who is from San Antonio, Texas, is working with Renee Threlfall, food science researcher in enology and viticulture.

Mayfield, a Bumpers College honors graduate, has previously studied at the University of Ghent in Belgium to conduct research on creating shortening and chocolate with a soy oil, which results in lower bad cholesterol, and increases good cholesterol and boosts metabolism. That project was completed with Andy Proctor, University Professor of food science.

The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation offers scholarships for academic exchanges between students at U.S. and Austrian universities aiming at improving Austrian-American relations in the spirit of the Marshall Plan and to strengthen scholarly and scientific co-operations. The scholarship is awarded to students at U.S. universities conducting research for their bachelor's, master's or Ph.D. thesis at the University of Graz, or degree students of University of Graz conducting research at a U.S. institutions of higher education. 

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.