Sarah Brinkley is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University under Dr. Lombardini. Her research focuses on finding links between plant-associated micro organisms, plant health, and coffee quality. This work is informed by her diverse background in the coffee and wine industries, bio-analytical chemistry research, and university-level teaching. By sharing her experience as a specialty coffee roaster and barista, Sarah is instrumental in connecting industry to academia. At TAMU, she teaches a Coffee Chemistry lecture and assists with demos for undergraduate students in the course: Processing Coffee and High-Value Food Crops.
Sarah holds a Chemistry B.S. in cursu honorum and a “Fast-track” Chemistry M.S. degree. Both degrees are from Tennessee Technological University, where she focused on proteomic consequences of unnatural amino acids. At TAMU, her work on coffee is supported by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Merit Fellowship, awarded on the basis of scholarship, high-impact experiential learning, and demonstrated leadership ability.