(Wines&Vines) - Former NASA engineer Jill Brigham’s new mission is to launch the Sustainable Wine & Food Processing Center at the University of California, Davis.

The center is a joint project between the university’s Department of Viticulture & Enology and the Department of Food Science and Technology. Brigham became the first executive director of the new center in March.

She said the purpose of the center is to do research and collaborative work with the private sector to test technologies and develop methods to reduce the consumption of energy and water, and to reduce waste and develop uses for the waste streams that processing facilities create. The center is also expected to provide demonstration and outreach activities for the wine and food industries to apply best practices to processing operations.

Perfecting sustainable practices

Much of the initial work at the center will be focused on sustainable systems and technologies for the university’s teaching and research winery and the adjacent Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building. However, Brigham said the center would also be involved in developing sustainable technologies for the brewery and dairy processing facilities that also occupy the Robert Mondavi Institute complex. The center’s work with sustainable systems and technologies will be applied in the future to fruit and vegetable processing and packaging operations that use a significant amount of water and energy.

One of the written goals of the center states: “Develop a research portfolio that addresses a broad variety of industry and government needs in the areas of: water and energy minimization, rainwater recovery and treatment, alternative energy generation, and byproduct recovery, that are consistent with current and future industry processing standards.”

Brigham worked for 26 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She holds an MS degree in computer and systems engineering from the University of Houston, and a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. As a systems engineer, Brigham worked on a wide range of projects at NASA and specialized in integrating hardware and software technology for the operational and control systems of aircraft and spacecraft systems.