Unit Operations in Winery, Brewery, and Distillery Design

Professor Block is Marvin Sands Department Chair in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis and holds the Ernest Gallo Endowed Chair. Since joining UC Davis, he has conducted research on various topics, from fermentation optimization methods to metabolic engineering of yeast for improved wine production, as well as more recently working on single-plant resolution irrigation sensing and control. He played a key role in designing the UC Davis LEED Platinum-certified Teaching and Research Winery. Prof. Block has received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UC Davis Academic Senate, the highest teaching award given for teaching alone on the UC Davis campus. Prior to joining UC Davis, he worked for Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. working on biopharmaceuticals, both in process development and in manufacturing. David holds a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, both in Chemical Engineering.

Konrad Miller is the Director of Process Development at Solugen Inc, a Houston-based biotechnology company; and an Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Davis. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Davis, an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California, a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley; and is a licensed Professional Engineer. After earning his bachelors, Dr. Miller worked as a process engineer in the wine and spirits industry at E&J Gallo, the beer industry at Anheuser-Busch, and in the biotechnology industry at Amyris. He returned to school to study under Dr. Block, earning a PhD focused on the development reactor-engineering models of red wine fermentations. His expertise is in process development and design in the food and bioprocess industries.