Biography/ Background
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Media Expertise

Professor Dennis Taylor

Telephone	+61 8 8303 7239
Position	Head of Discipline & Professor of Oenology
Email	dennis.taylor@adelaide.edu.au
Fax	+61 8 8303 7116
Building	Wine Innovation Central Bldg
Floor/Room	4 38
Campus	Waite
Org Unit	Wine and Horticulture

To link to this page, please use the following URL:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/dennis.taylor

Biography/ Background

Professor and Chair of Oenology, The University of Adelaide (2006-present)
Adjunct Professor of Organic Chemistry (2006-present)
Head of the Discipline of Wine and Horticulture (2007-present)
Former Head of the Discipline of Chemistry, The University of Adelaide (2005-2006)
Graduate of the University of Adelaides Advanced Leadership Development Program.

Professional Member of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology
Member of the Wine Industry Supplier Association
Fellow of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute
Member of the American Chemical Society
Member of the Wine Innovation Cluster Research Group

Postdoctoral Fellow and 2IC to Sir Derek Barton (Nobel Laureate chemistry) (1993-1994)
PhD (Flinders University of South Australia) (1992)
BSc with 1st Class Honours (1988)

Teaching Interests

Professor Taylor overseas the Discipline of Wine and Horticulture teaching duties at all levels.

Dennis teaches into a range of subjects at the universities undergraduate level. Teaching includes courses as diverse as Introductory Grape and Wine Knowledge, Chemistry I, Foundations of Wine Science, Chemistry II, Stabilisation and Clarification, Advances in Oenology, Chemistry III and Distillation, Fortified and Sparkling Winemaking.

Professor Taylor is passionate about educating the next generation of scientists. Research positions are always available at all levels (Summer scholars, Honours students, PhD Researchers and Postdoctoral Fellows). Please contact us is you are interested in pursuing a research career in any of the areas below. Note: many of these projects are in collaborations with our WIC/Waite partners, which include CSIRO, AWRI, SARDI and Provisor.

Research Interests

Professor Taylor has two primary research laboratories. The major research group is devoted to leading research in the fields of wine chemistry, wine phenolics, wine oxidation and the characterization of aroma compounds within wine. This group is currently situated within the Plant Research Centre, however, will move to new state-of-the-art laboratories within the new Wine Innovation Cluster (WIC) in late 2008. He is also the leader of a smaller research group devoted to synthetic organic chemistry and the invention of chemical reactions for the synthesis on new bioactive natural products. This group is situated within the Chemistry Building at Adelaide University. There are numerous Honours, PhD and post-docs utilizing these two facilities. Please see our group web page to see some of the exciting research being conducted by my group members. Opportunities exist for Summer Scholars, Honours ans PhD students and also post-docs to join our group now.

Specific areas of research in the Taylor labs include:

To understanding the role of hydrogen peroxide in grape and vine tissues and to use the information as a new parameter for the grading of berry ripeness and quality.
To develop new biodegradable antifungals for Botrytis control usable up until harvest.
To ascertain the unexplained biological function of steroid endoperoxides, in particular ergosterol endoperoxide.
To understand further the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in wine production.
To set new trends for Australian wines: characterisation of lees and novel uses for yeast lees to create new wine styles.
To understand and manipulate the control of berry ripening and the accumulation of secondary metabolite flavour compounds in wine grapes.
To utilise a chemical genomics approach to investigate the role of specific POX gene products.
Identification, isolation and characterisation of the hydrolytic behaviour of glycoconjugated precursors to aroma compounds in grapes and wine.
The application of new methodologies to the synthesis and sensory evaluation of enantio-pure grape and wine constituents.
Investigating the structure-function relationships of tannins conjugated to common wine phenolics.
Understanding the roles of quinonoidal intermediates in the formation of wine phenolics.
Cyclodextrins as new wine fining agents.

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Wine and viticulture
Expertise	Wine Science, Wine Chemistry, Oenology, Peroxides and Organic Chemistry

Entry last updated: Sunday, 8 Nov 2009

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