Rate My Professor Les Copeland

Les Copeland is Emeritus Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, where he served as Professor of Agriculture from 2001 to 2017. An accomplished agricultural chemist, he obtained his BSc and PhD degrees in biochemistry from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Early in his career, Copeland held postdoctoral research fellowships at Yale University (1971-1972), the State University of New York at Buffalo (1972-1973), and as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Davis (1979-1980). At the University of Sydney, he advanced from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry (1974-1992), Head of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science (1993-2000), and Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (2001-2007).

His research focuses on the chemistry of food grains, starch structure and function in cereals, biochemistry of nitrogen-fixing legume symbioses, regulation of plant carbon metabolism, food starches, and environmental influences on grain quality. Copeland has authored numerous publications, including "Archaeological Starch" (Agronomy, 2018, with K. Hardy), "A century of agriculture in the University of Sydney" (Agricultural Science, 2020), and works on starch-lipid complexes, their digestibility, and fermentation properties. He supervised 34 PhD students, earning the AACC International 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award. Leadership roles include directing the CRC for Value Added Wheat (2001-2008) and Australian Cotton CRC (2003-2005), Chair of the Committee of Deans of University of Sydney (2006-2007), and President of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture (2007-2008). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Cereal Chemistry (since 2016) and was Foundation Editor of Agriculture journal (2011). Awards include the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 for significant service to agricultural science as an academic and researcher, and the F.B. Guthrie Medal (2020, jointly). He has contributed to boards such as the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (2017-2019) and various scientific committees.