Anne Fennell

Professor of Horticulture, Forestry, Landscape and Parks

Education: Ph.D. and M.S. at University of Minnesota, B.S. at Iowa State

Awards: Gamma Sigma Delta Research Award; SDSU Women of Distinction Award; Dean’s Team Award for Entrepreneurship, Production, and Agritourism in Horticulture Specialty Crops

While people may not often associate the terms “vineyard” and “South Dakota Legislature,” they could have in 1997. That’s the year SDSU professor and researcher Anne Fennell testified to the state congress on behalf of the farm winery bill.

“I’ve been a part of the grape and wine industry since day one.” Her work involves 1,000 plants a year, and it isn’t an isolated operation. Since the passage of the winery bill, South Dakota has seen 13 licensed wineries spring up across the state.

“People always pause when I tell them I work on grapes in South Dakota,” says Fennell, “but grapes (V. riparia) are native to this region and dormancy is important, both to winter survival in the Northern Plains as well as to grape production in the global grape industry.”

Understanding dormancy is what Fennell does: She heads a $3.2 million grant (in collaboration with two other universities) from the National Science Foundation to research environmental and genetic components of dormancy development in grapevines.