Professor Les Copeland

Summary

Achieving food security involves increasing crop productivity as well as enhancing the use of produce through ensuring fitness-for-purpose (quality) of food and feed grains. My research is aimed at developing a greater understanding of quality requirements of grains for specific end uses and nutrition, and how quality is influenced by interactions between genetics, environment, crop management and processing.

Research interests & background

I have an extensive background as a researcher in plant biochemistry. By applying a biochemical approach to a broad range of topics of strategic interest in agriculture, food science and the environment, my research group has contributed key knowledge of the pathways of carbon metabolism in plants, especially in symbiotic nitrogen fixing legume nodules, and on the relationship between form and function of starch and proteins in cereal grains.

The main theme of my current research is cereal chemistry and biochemistry, in particular the quality of food grains in relation to fitness-for-purpose in food processing and nutrition. A wide range of chemical, biochemical, proteomic and imaging and scattering methods are being used to address questions relating to: the form and function of starch granules, starch molecules and starch-lipid complexes; the enzymic digestibility of starch and starch-lipid complexes; how genetics and environment influence grain quality and the expression of grain proteins; and the effect of postharvest storage on the properties and functionality of starch and proteins of grains. I also have research interests on characterizing ancient starch granules in archaeological samples to explore the origins of agriculture and human diets.

Academic background

Les Copeland graduated from the University of Sydney with a BSc (Hons 1) 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 President 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 30 completed PhD students. He holds a Graduate Diploma of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. His research and teaching cover a wide range of areas in agricultural, food and environmental chemistry and biochemistry, and scientific communication. He has extensive experience in international projects.

Recent publications

Copeland L. Grain quality and food security. Journal of Advances in Food, Hospitality and Tourism (accepted for publication)

Copeland L, Salman H. Effect of repeated heating and cooling cycles on the pasting properties of starch. Journal of Cereal Science (accepted for publication)

Copeland L, Blazek J, Salman H and Tang CM. 2009. Form and functionality of starch. Food Hydrocolloids 23: 1527-1534

Blazek J, Salman H, Lopez-Rubio A, Gilbert EP, Hanley T and Copeland L. 2009. Structural parameters of wheat starch granules differing in amylose content and functional characteristics studied by small-angle x-ray scattering. Carbohydrate Polymers 75: 705-711

Salman H, Blazek J, Lopez-Rubio A, Gilbert EP, Hanley T and Copeland L. 2009. Structure-function relationships in A and B granules from wheat starches of similar amylose content. Carbohydrate Polymers 75:420 427

Mak YM, Willows RD, Roberts TH, Wrigley CW, Sharp PS, Copeland L. 2009. Germination of wheat: a functional proteomics analysis of the embryo. Cereal Chemistry 86: 281-289

Blazek J, Copeland L. 2009. The effect of monopalmitin on pasting properties of wheat starches with varying amylose content. Carbohydrate Polymers 78: 131-136

Hardy K, Blakeney AB, Copeland L, Kirkham J, Wrangham RW, Collins MJ 2009. Starch granules, dental calculus and new perspectives on ancient diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 248-255

Blazek J and Copeland L 2008. Pasting and swelling properties of wheat flour and starch in relation to amylose content. Carbohydrate Polymers 71: 380-387

Wilkes M and Copeland L 2008. Storage of wheat grains at elevated temperatures increases solubilisation of glutenin subunits. Cereal Chemistry 85: 335-338

Contact

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