ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.— Les Copeland, professor and former dean of agriculture at the University of Sydney, will soon take over as editor-in-chief of Cereal Chemistry, the world's leading scientific journal on cereal science research. The American Association of Cereal Chemists International's (AACCI) board of directors announced his appointment on Oct. 27
 
Copeland was selected from six candidates during a six-month search by a committee appointed by the AACCI board.
 
"Both the search committee and the board of directors look forward to professor Copeland's strategic insight and leadership as our next editor-in-chief, a critical responsibility for the enduring success of the association's flagship journal," said Jan Delcour, chair of AACCI's board of directors. "He has an excellent track record in the scientific domain covered by the journal."
 
Copeland's three-year tenure as editor-in-chief will officially begin on Jan. 1, 2016. He will be the successor to current editor-in-chief Craig Morris, who saw article submissions increase by more than 25%, as well as nearly 100,000 article downloads during his three-year term.
 
"It is a great honor to have been selected as the next editor-in-chief of Cereal Chemistry,” Copeland said. “I look forward to the exciting challenges of the role and to providing leadership to the journal in this era of great changes in scientific publishing. I will be doing all I can to meet the expectations of AACC International and the broader cereal science community in promoting and enhancing the reputation of this fine journal."
 
Before his current position at the University of Sydney, Copeland held postdoctoral appointments at Yale University and the University of Buffalo. He was also a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Davis. His bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in biochemistry were received from the University of Sydney, and he is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
 
His research interests are on the chemistry of food grains and food plants, structure-function relationships of food starches, genotype and environmental effects on cereal grain quality, and the origins of the human diet.