I completed my undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a university with a strong agriculture and winemaking program. After that, I made wine around the world before moving to Australia to pursue a PhD and later join the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) as a scientist. I was fortunate during my undergraduate studies to be surrounded by very passionate professors from the enology department. Their enthusiasm really sparked my interest in wine, science, and the microbiology of fermentation. Since then, I’ve been hooked, yeasts and bacteria continue to amaze me, especially their long standing connection with human development. Becoming an academic has always felt like the natural next step, largely because I want to dig deeper into the scientific questions that emerge through research.
Dr. Onetto joined the OSU Horticulture and Crop Science Department on February 1, 2026.