Wilson (96GS, 97GS) is the Michter’s master of maturation, a relatively newer title for anyone — woman or man — in the Kentucky bourbon distilling industry. Wil­son works hand-in-hand with the distillery’s master distiller to ensure the aging process of the barrels is doing its part to end up with the exact bourbon they have in mind.

Marianne Barnes also graduated from UofL with a chemical engineering degree. She expected to find work in biofuels, but instead is helping bring an abandoned Kentucky distillery back to life.

Barnes (12S) became the first woman since Prohibition to be named master distiller in Kentucky when she joined Castle & Key in 2015. Her job is to come up with the products that will revive a long-abandoned spirits company and distillery in Frankfort that is being meticulously restored.

Joyce Nethery used her chemical engineering training to work in indus­trial distilling, teach high school and become chief financial officer of a dairy farm. But when she combined her education with her passion for heirloom vegetables, she put a new Kentucky artisan distillery on the map.

Nethery (85S, 87GS) is the master distiller and co-owner of Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville. Jeptha Creed sold out of its first tiny batch of bourbon and makes flavored moonshine and vodkas. Next year, another bourbon will be ready. The Nethery family uses an heirloom corn called “Bloody Butcher” that they grow themselves on their farm.

Katherine O’Nan will graduate in May with her degree in chemical engineering. She interned at Michter’s under Wilson and Heilmann. Thanks to her Brown Fellowship, she also had an opportunity to travel to Scotland, then to Canada, to see how they made their whiskeys. Following in the footsteps of Wilson, Barnes and Nethery, she is poised for a promising career in an industry that 40 years ago wasn’t on the radar for female graduates of UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering.

��𲹻���, the full story of a quartet of Speed School women who are the engineers behind Kentucky’s best bourbons in the Winter/Spring 2018 edition of UofL Magazine. The full issue is available .

It goes like this: one day they will open a microbrewery together. She will handle all the chemistry and her beer-loving dad will handle all the tasting.

While the lighthearted banter between father and daughter was just for fun, the joking planted the seed of an idea in O’Nan’s heart. Could she leverage her love of chemistry to work in one of Kentucky’s most celebrated industries?

“I’ve always loved my home state of Kentucky and when I added chemical engineering into the mix, the bourbon industry seemed to be a marriage of the two,” O’Nan said.

A native of Ashland, O’Nan began her academic journey with a UofL scholarship. The grant provides full tuition, a spending stipend and international travel enrichment experiences.

“For my first summer enrichment experience, I decided to follow this interest by traveling to Scotland for three weeks to shadow and work at various whisky distilleries,” O’Nan said. “Learning more about the process and seeing how passionate those in the industry were really confirmed that this was something I wanted to pursue.”

When the time came for O’Nan’s second Brown Fellows enrichment opportunity, she headed north.

“I road-tripped from Kentucky up through Detroit across the border to Canada. From there, I spent a week making my way across Ontario, stopping at distilleries to work for a day at a time,” O’Nan explained. “Once I hit Toronto, I flew to Nova Scotia and spent a week there working at a few more distilleries.”

Some of her distillery experiences were closer to home. She attended in Louisville. The five-day intensive workshop featured instructions on vodka, rum, whiskey and gin-making, sensory training and discussed industry topics such as branding, distribution, state and federal compliance, hospitality and tourism.

To gain even more insight, O’Nan leveraged her co-op by working at Louisville-based distiller, .

“During my time there, I was able to learn a lot about whiskey filtration processes, how a distillery and its equipment operate, concepts about how the whisky ages in the barrel, and just how many people it takes to get from that grain to a quality bottle on the shelf,” O’Nan said.

O’Nan has now visited 19 distilleries and tried many different drinks, but bourbon is still her favorite.

“I love the way that the bourbon industry is so prominent right now and brings so many to the state of Kentucky. I’m passionate about my home state and the drink people from all over associate with it,” she said.

O’Nan is on track to graduate from UofL in the spring.