Les Copeland

Professor of Agriculture

Contact details

Les Copeland graduated from the University of Sydney with a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry. After postdoctoral research in the USA, at Yale University and the State University of New York, Buffalo, he took up an academic appointment in the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of Sydney, where he has been since 1974. He was Head of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science from 1993 to 2000, and Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources from 2001 to 2007. He was the Inaugural Resident of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture in 2007-08. Les was a Fulbright Fellow in the University of California in Davis, USA in 1979-80, and a Visiting Fellow in the Australian National University in 1986 and 1992. He has over 100 publications, and has been the Supervisor of 29 PhD students. He holds a Graduate Diploma of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Research and teaching of Les Copeland cover a wide range of areas in agricultural, food and environmental chemistry and biochemistry. In recent years a major focus of his research has been on the properties and functionality of starch and proteins of cereal grains and storage roots and tubers, starch-lipid complexes, age-related changes in stored grain, and cereal grain proteomics. Other major interests include enzymology, biological nitrogen fixation, environmental biochemistry and scientific communication. He has extensive experience in international projects.

1. Crowe TC, Seligman SA and Copeland L. 2000. Inhibition of enzymic digestion of of amylose by free fatty acids: contribution to resistant starch formation. Journal of Nutrition 130: 2006-2008
2. Skylas DJ, Mackintosh JA, Cordwell SJ, Basseal DJ, Walsh BJ, Harry J, Blumenthal C, Copeland L, Wrigley CW, Rathmell W 2000. Proteome approach to the characterisation of protein composition in the developing and mature wheat-grain endosperm. Journal of Cereal Science 31: 169-188
3. Skylas DJ, Copeland L, Rathmell W and Wrigley CW 2001. The wheat-grain proteome as a basis for more efficient cultivar identification. Proteomics 1: 1542-1546
4. Feng L, Roughley RJ and Copeland L 2002. Morphological changes in rhizobia in peat cultures. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 68: 1064-1070
5. Skylas DJ, Cordwell SJ, Hains PG, Larsen MR, Basseal DJ, Walsh BJ, Blumenthal C, Rathmell W, Copeland L and Wrigley CW 2002. Heat shock of wheat during grain filling: characterisation of proteins associated with heat-tolerance using a proteome approach. Journal of Cereal Science 35: 175-188
6. Dang JMC and Copeland 2003. Imaging rice grains using atomic force microscopy. Journal of Cereal Science 37: 165-170
7. Kitahara, K and Copeland L 2004. A simple method for fractionating debranched starch using a reversed-phase solid cartridge. Journal of Cereal Science 39: 91-98
8. Dang JMC and Copeland L 2004. Studies of the fracture surface of rice grains using environmental scanning electron microscopy. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 84: 707-713
9. Dang JMC and Copeland L 2004. Genotype and environmental influences on pasting properties of rice flour. Cereal Chemistry 81: 486-489
10. Mak Y, Willows RD, Roberts TH, Wrigley CW, Sharp PJ, Copeland L. 2006. Black Point is associated with reduced levels of stress-, disease-, and defence-related proteins in wheat grain. Molecular Plant Pathology 7: 177-189
11. Mak Y, Skylas DJ, Willows R, Connolly A, Cordwell SJ, Wrigley CW, Sharp PJ and Copeland L 2006. Proteomic approach for identification and characterisation of protein composition in wheat germ. Functional and Integrative Genomics 6: 322-333
12. Dang JMC, Braet F and Copeland L 2006. Nanostructural analysis of starch components by atomic force microscopy. Journal of Microscopy 224: 181-186
13. Tang MC and Copeland L. 2007. Analysis of complexes between lipids and wheat starch. Carbohydrate Polymers 67: 80-85
14. Tang MC and Copeland L 2007. Investigation of starch retrogradation using atomic force microscopy. Carbohydrate Polymers 70: 1-7
15. Salman H and Copeland L 2007. Effect of storage on fat acidity and pasting characteristics of wheat flour. Cereal Chemistry 84: 600-606
16. Blazek J and Copeland L 2008. Pasting and swelling properties of wheat flour and starch in relation to amylase content. Carbohydrate Polymers 71: 380-387
17. Wilkes M and Copeland L 2008. Storage of wheat grains at elevated temperatures increases solubilisation of glutenin subunits. Cereal Chemistry 85: 335-338