Stuart Grant Wyllie

Stuart Grant Wyllie born at La Rochelle Maternity Hospital, Dunedin,  3-6-1938. In 1941 he shifted with the family to 110 Gladstone Road, Mosgiel. He as educated at East Taieri Primary School and King Edward Technical College where he obtained School Certificate and University Entrance qualifications. He enrolled then in a science degree at the University of Otago and obtained a BSc. in chemistry followed by a masters Degree in organic chemistry and in 1960 was employed as an assistant lecturer and PhD candidate in the Chemistry Department of the University of Otago.He married Maureen Kennedy in 1962 and their first child Megan was born in December 1964, the month in which Grant was awarded his PhD. Early in January 1965 the family travelled to Sydney, Australia where he had obtained a postdoctoral scholarship with Professor K. Cavill. In September 1965 they travelled to Palo Alto California where Grant had a postdoctoral position with Professor C. Djerassi at Stanford University. Their son Martin was born here. After two years the family returned to Canberra, Australia where Grant had obtained a three year Research Fellow position at the newly established Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University. Their third child Gabrielle was born here. In 1970 Grant obtained a position as lecturer in chemistry at the then New South Wales Institute of Technology (NSWIT) and the family shifted to Sydney and bought a house at 81 Norman Avenue in Thornleigh.  In 1974 he obtained  the position of Head of the Department of Chemistry at what was the the Hawkesbury Agricultural College at Richmond NSW. Soon the College was absorbed into the College of Advanced Education sector and became part of the revised Australian tertiary education establishment. In the ensuing years the College grew rapidly and diversified into many other areas of education.    It became part of the University of Western Sydney (now Western Sydney University)  which was founded in 1989 as a federated network university  by an amalgamation of the Nepean College of Advanced Education, Hawkesbury College of Advanced Education and Macarthur College of Advanced Education. 

When Grant retired in 2002 the University had over 20,000 students and he was the Dean of the College of Science, Technology and Engineering.

At the risk of seeming to be self-promoting I have decided to include my application for promotion to Professor as it summarises many of the activities that took place over the 28 years I was with the various institutions that finally became the University of Western Sydney, and my role in them.

April, 2001.

Application for Promotion to Professor

Associate Professor S.G. Wyllie.

Introduction.

The University’s ‘General Standard’ for appointment to a chair reads as follows:

“A Professor is expected to exercise a special responsibility for providing leadership and in fostering excellence in research, professional activities and policy development in the academic discipline within the department or other comparable organisational unit, within the institution and within the community, both scholarly and general”.

In the following pages I have set out to demonstrate that during my academic career and more specifically over the last decade, I have met the requirements and responsibilities outlined above and how these qualities underpin my application for promotion to Professor. They have been set out under the fields described in the criteria for promotion.

Institutional leadership and/or Governance.

Academic Organisational Unit Leadership.

For all of the 26.5 years I have been at firstly Hawkesbury Agricultural the College, the Hawkesbury CAE and the now the University of Western Sydney I have held a position as an academic leader and manager. This commenced as a Head of Department of Chemistry (8yrs) and continued through Head, Department of Applied and Environmental Sciences (3yrs), Head, School of Science (3yrs), Associate Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology (4yrs, elected position ), Acting Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology (1yr) and in 1998 the election asappointed Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, UWSH (ca. 80 staff and 800 students) 1998-2000. In this latter position I was responsible for the implementation within the Faculty of the last restructuring undertaken by UWS Hawkesbury. A number of the innovations developed and applied here have provided models for the new UWS restructuring. In particular the development of multidisciplinary academic groupings supported by administrative and technical support precincts began the process of persuading staff to broaden their views on teaching and research. The development of focussed research centres was also encouraged and these now provide the basis for some of our Key Research Centres.

In September 2000, after the University was unable to attract a suitable candidate for the position of Dean of the College of Science, Technology and Environment (I was not a candidate) I was approached by the Vice Chancellor to assume this position until the position was readvertised sometime during 2001. I have therefore been the interim Dean and Campus Provost since this date and have commenced the task of developing this large academic unit which has a total of approximately 350 academic, general and technical staff in four Schools spread over four campuses and encompasses six of the University Key Research Centres. The key tasks of course and subject consolidation are already well underway as is the process of team building and strategic planning.

I believe I can therefore cite a long record of the leadership and management of academic units and in particular over the last five years, these units have been of increasing size, responsibility and complexity.

Interim Dean, College of Science, Technology and Environment, September 2000 to present.

Institutional Leadership and Governance.

I was a member of the Hawkesbury Academic Board for many years and this culminated in my appointment as Chairman in 1984 for a period of four years. This role included the oversight of academic standards, the approval of new course proposals and the review of student results for all academic units. I voluntarily relinquished this position to devote more effort to the development of research at Hawkesbury. I was a member of the Hawkesbury Management Committee (1995) and latterly the Hawkesbury Division of Academic Affairs Management Team (1997-2000).

As acting Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology I became a member of the UWS Academic Board in 1995 and retained this position until 1997 when Academic Board Chair, Hawkesbury College of Advanced Education 198??-198??

I was Aappointed as the Vice Chancellors nominee on new Senate. 1998. I was elected as 

Elected Deputy Chair, to this body in 1999 a position I will retain until the current round of elections is completed. UWS Senate, 1999 to present. I am currently a member 

Member of the following Academic Senate Committees: Coordination Committee, the Teaching and Learning Committee, and the Academic Programs Committee. During the Shape of the Future change process I served on the Academic Governance Workgroup, The Division of Education Workgroup and the General Staff Structures Workgroup.

Among the most significant contributions I have made to the Senate discussions and decision making I rate the drafting, with Prof B. Mackenzie, of the paper on the Shape of the UWS degree as being the most important. The recommendations of the final version of this document had and continues to have, a crucial influence on the current reshaping of the award structures of the ‘new’ UWS.

As Dean I am a member of the University Management Committee and some of its subcommittees Budget and Finance Committee) and of the Implementation Steering Committee.

Teaching and/or curriculum development and or educational leadership.

Over the last decade my role as an academic administrator and researcher has meant that I have not had a major teaching involvement at undergraduate level although I have usually taught or been part of a team teaching at least one subject in any semester. Therefore my major teaching contribution over this period has been in the supervision of Honours and postgraduate students. My record in this respect is presented in the research section of this application. My major contribution to educational leadership over the last decade has, I consider, been in the area of course design. I have been, as attested in the following papers, an advocate of course and subject rationalisation for some time. This advocacy has been driven by a belief that such moves coupled with proper course design will provide both more flexible programs for students and higher quality teaching environments. The foresight of these approaches begun in the early 90’s has I think been borne out by subsequent events where financial imperatives have been added to the educational advantages.

To illustrate the contributions I have made to both “institutional and academic governance” and “educational leadership” categories I have included a selection of papers I have written for internal use over the last few years on a whole range of topics in this area. Some of these follow this section immediately; others are included in the appendix papers. These I believe constitute good examples of the philosophy and approaches I have promulgated on these topics. I urge the members of the Promotion Committee to read at least some of these papers in detail since I consider that they encapsulate the scholarship, approach and contribution I have made to the academic debate within the university over the recent past.

Referees. 

Institutional Leadership and/or Governance,Academic Managerial Leadership.  Academic Organisational Unit and Educational Leadership.

Nominated referees:- Professor Paul Baumgartner. As long term Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology and latterly PVC Research at Hawkesbury, Paul and I have worked together for many years. I consider he will be able to provide an in depth commentary on the contributions I have made to UWS in the areas of institutional and academic leadership since as my immediate supervisor he has had the opportunity to observe my activities at first hand.

Associate Professor Marsha Durham. As chair and Deputy Chair of Academic Senate over the last two years Marsha and I have worked together closely to build the academic framework and governance which will underpin the new directions of the restructured University. She will be able to comment on the contribution I have made to a range of committees and workgroups associated with senate and with the change process.

First Draft of Paper to Academic Programs Committee UWS Senate (2000)

The Academic Profile and the Shape of a UWS Undergraduate Degree

I have consolidated the discussion of academic profile and shape of a degree since I see then as being related to some extent.

One of the difficulties in establishing an academic profile is trying to define what constitutes a profile.  The following is an attempt to lay down some guidelines to progress our thinking on the composition of an academic profile.

It can be argued that the framework of an academic profile can be based on the range of awards offered.  For example, UWS does not offer medical or veterinary science degrees and hence these areas are not part of our profile.  However, examination of the awards we do offer reveals a plethora of names many with various degrees of relatedness and clearly at least some conceptual rationalisation will be necessary if we are going to be able to consolidate a general framework.

It seems logical to start with the standard traditional undergraduate awards such as the BA, BCom, BBus, BSc, BAppSci, Law etc from the list we report to DETYA.

We can now proceed in at least two ways.  One is  to identify non-traditional awards and see if they can be grouped with traditional ones.  Secondly, we need to drill down into these degree groups and use major descriptors and anything else relevant to place them in a field of study, firstly at a DEETYA field level and secondly at a more specific UWS defined field level. 

Information Required.

Allied to the above a considerable amount of detailed information needs to be gathered so that some measure of objective assessment of program strength can be made.  Most of this should be able to be obtained from the student record system. It would include course cohort sizes, student numbers within the course subjects and the exclusivity of these subjects, location of delivery, availability in flexible mode together with some indication of the amount of staff effort involved in administering the course (eg. does each major require a coordinator and separate administrative system?). We also need to collect data about the importance of the course at a University, state and/or national level.

The Role of Course Regulations in College Porosity and Other Things

Many of the discussions about shaping the future have mentioned the philosophy of encouraging and indeed ensuring choice for students by among other things propagating College porosity.  We all know that unfettered EFTSU based resource allocation will inevitably lead to course designs which maximise group income rather than improve student opportunity. A number of factors could be very influential on this activity.  One is the application of UWS graduate requirements via award and course regulation. This could ensure via elective choice that each College would have the opportunity to exchange student load and provide incentives for them to mount subjects designed to meet these needs. 

The second is a carefully formulated resource allocation process that for example rewards inter-Collegiate activity such as co-teaching. Alternatively or in addition we could set performance indicators for desired levels of cross College teaching and attach financial incentives to these.

A third is a stringent system of monitoring subject and course changes so that all the consequences of these changes can be assessed.

Course regulations are, of course, major administrative tools for supporting academic outcomes.  If we are not to become entrapped in a maze of confusion about our rules and regulations they should be as uniform as possible across all our awards.  This is where the grouping of traditional and non-traditional awards into related genres mentioned above also comes into play.  Within reason the basic rules for all our, say undergraduate degrees, should be the same.  The common subject weight we have adopted will support this.  So should our graduate characteristics if we can convert the intangibles into outcomes. I am also convinced that a reasonable uniformity of rules and regulations has significant quality and equity implications for students.

Areas of Strength

In the formulation of a strategic and academic plan the University must decide how it is going to determine its areas of strength from for instance those that are just adequate, are in decline or are weak. A methodology of assessing strength must be devised and applied to all our areas of study, AOUs and administrative support units.  Such methods will be based on teaching and research performance and presumably a range of other KPIs.  We need to know how we are going to decide whether an area is weak or strong, what are the performance indicators we should us, what values systems should be applied. We need to know the answers to these and related questions soon. In the not too distant future information such as this will be used, along with other factors, in high level decision making, particularly academic plan formulation.

The Shape of our Degrees.

Let me now take up the issue of the ‘shape of our degrees’ in more detail. I put forward one particular conceptual approach because it is the one I feel most comfortable with but realise that many other paths are possible. Although DETYA classifications probably have no particular merit compared to others we at least have our data categorised by this method so it forms a suitable starting point.

According to our 1999 DETYA returns the University offers undergraduate courses in nine major fields of study; Agriculture/Horticulture, Building and Design, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Education, Engineering, Health, Law and Science. The distribution of total enrolments (u/g and p/g) in these fields is shown in the following diagram.

This suggests that we could start with the proposition that we should have nine Bachelors degrees, BA, BSc, BEd, B Bus, B Health, B Ag, B Build, B Law, B Eng or some more suitably named generics. Within each of these major fields there is a number of what I will call minor fields having more specific descriptors but again based on DETYA classification. According to our DETYA return the number of these in each of the major fields is as follows:

Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (BA base degree)                             29, 

Science (BSc base degree)                                                                        15, 

Education (BEd base degree)                                                                     16, 

Business/Economics (BBus base degree)                                                   13, 

Health (BHealth base degree)                                                                    11, 

Agriculture/Horticulture (BAg base degree)                                                 7, 

Building & Design (BBuild base degree)                                           5, 

Law (BLaw base degree)                                                                 5, 

Engineering (BEng base Degree)                                                    8.

It should be noted that these minor field numbers include postgraduate programs.

Is there some way we can plan some degree of consolidation and coherence in this complex situation? If we focus on the Bachelors degree again for a moment can we  identify some generic requirements that would apply to all Bachelors degrees. Nigel Bond’s paper has provided us with an outline of how this might be done, viz.:

·       awards be either 240 (3yrs) or 320 (4yrs) credit points,

·       each subject be 10 cpts or in special cases multiples thereof

·       full time load be 40 cpts/semester

·       assumed knowledge governs passage through subject sequences rather than pre- or co-requisites

·       possibility of designating subject levels other than 1,2,3

·       base competency set requirements such as computing, communications and civics (UWS graduate characteristics)

·       awards should attempt to include a minimum of 80 cpts of open electives (again the definition of open electives needs to be clarified) in a 240/320 award. (Case required for variation.)

It seems likely that these guidelines could be adopted across UWS without to much argument although the issues of assumed knowledge, the delivery mode and evaluation of base competencies and the number of open electives may raise some forthright discussion.

One model, assuming that these generic requirements are accepted, would be to have one Bachelors award only for each major field of study i.e a total of nine if we accept the DETYA classification. For example, one generic BA award with a basic set of regulations conforming to the above general guidelines and outlining requirements for student progression and graduation. 

The minor fields, and in this case I think we could define our own fields, would be designated by majors eg. BSc(Biology), BA(Social Science). This would require a clear definition of what constitutes a major (and a minor or sub-major for that matter), a definition that again should apply across the whole award structure. Subsets of the rules based on these definitions would set out the requirements for obtaining specific major designations that would appear on the student’s testamur and would provide the basis for students to choose the appropriate pathway. 

Another approach is to permit a large range of specific a wards eg. Bachelor of Criminology, Bachelor of Horticulture, Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, but require that each award has essentially the same rules (within reason) so that their quality control procedures and administration is known to everyone involved in teaching across the University.

Doubtless there are other models and combinations of the above that could be considered. 

The issue of marketing and badge engineering also needs to be taken into account. This is a area of strongly held views which in many cases need to be better informed by targeted data gathering. This should be done by the PR and Marketing group which then interacts with the appropriate staff members so that a recommendation can be arrived at.

A decision as to whether we will pursue a policy of continuing with a large number of labelled awards each with distinct structures and regulations or whether we adopt the concept of a small set of generic awards each having a common set of rules and structures with the labels being provided by descriptors in brackets, or some other plan needs to be made.

It seems to me that it is the task of the Senate to provide these ground rules around which the Colleges can tackle the job of devising award structures which, within these agreed constraints, take into account the special needs and nuances of the programs they offer.

Over and above the issue of conforming to the award guidelines the Colleges should be charged with the requirement of demonstrating that the award structure, including the rules they are proposing, among other things, allows porosity between Colleges for students, enhances the quality and efficiency of academic administration within the University and provides a suitable vehicle for the marketing of programs to the community.

The question is how prescriptive these ground rules should be. We could take the position of many US universities that all students must undertake a certain number of ‘General Education’ units usually outside the academic unit in which they are enrolled. One of the great advantages of this approach is that it ensures that the ‘silo mentality’ is challenged and that Colleges will have to put some real effort into creating subjects which are attractive and well taught if they are to attract their share of this floating population. It would also contribute to imparting some of the valued UWS graduate characteristics to our students. On the other hand it adds another layer of complexity to our administration and will not be popular if it impacts on the perceived quality of the students in their major area. It should be kept in mind that most Bachelor degrees in the US are 4 years in duration and hence provide more room for general education. Nevertheless this is an approach that is widely adopted in the US and presumably is producing the benefits desired. It also is consistent with the mass education approach Australia is now adopting rather than the elitist approach of the past and seems to fit well with our local GWS aspirations. 

I consider that this approach is worth pursuing to see if it can be applied on the Australian scene since it has a lot of features going for it.

On the other hand we can expand and define the approach exemplified by the rules proposed by Nigel and use these as a starting point for further discussion.

Ultimately the Colleges have to be the implementers of any scheme we come up with and their involvement in the formulation of the system will be crucial.

Where do we go from here?

It seems to us that we need to start formulating a model as a stalking horse to get reaction from the academic community.

Here is a beginning. Again for simplicity this concentrates on bachelors degrees.

1.    There should be only nine generic bachelors awards corresponding to the DETYA major fields of study.

2.    Areas of specialisation should be indicated in brackets in the award name and included on the testamur. These areas should be based on, but not necessarily limited by, the DETYA minor fields of study designation and should be subject to approval by the Senate.

3.    Awards be either 240 (3yrs, 24 subjects) or 320 (4yrs, 32 subjects) credit points,

4.    Each subject be 10 cpts or in special cases multiples thereof

5.    Full time load be 40 cpts/semester

6.    Assumed knowledge governs passage through subject sequences rather than pre- or co-requisites unless argued otherwise and accepted by College BOS

7.    Subject levels will be designated by 100, 200, 300 system or similar.

8.    Base competency requirements such as computing, communications and civics will be met by general education requirements and major rules (UWS graduate characteristics)

9.    Each award will include (a) no more than 100 cpts of subjects at 100 level, (b) at least 60cpts of subjects at 300 level and (c) a minimum of 80 cpts of open electives (where open electives are defined as any subject available in the University) in 240/320 awards, unless Senate agrees otherwise.

10. Each award will include a minimum of 30 cpts taken from outside the student’s academic unit of enrolment. (How this is defined will depend on our final structure.

11. A major is defined as a coherent set of subjects amounting to a minimum of 160 cpts and conforming to the specific degree requirements for credit points at specified levels. ‘Core’ subjects would be part of the major by this definition.

12. A sub-major is a grouping of subjects which delineates a secondary area of concentration/specialisation within a course. The number of subjects necessary to complete a sub-major is 5 (50 credit points), again requirements for credit points at specific levels will be needed.

13. Academic performance and progression requirements be determined by a seven point grade point average system. 

S.G. Wyllie. 

Service to the Profession, Academic Discipline and Contribution to the Wider Community.

Member of the Royal Australian Institute of Chemistry, and member of the Committee of the NSW RACI Analytical Group. since 1985 and Chairman of this group 1990-1991; Convenor of the Chromatography Interest Group, 1985-1996. 

Convenor and Chair of the Organising Committee for the RACI sponsored international conference series, Chromatography ’92, ’94 and ’96 held in Sydney. (see attached brochure as example). This conference series ushered in a new approach to the organization and presentation of chemistry related conferences in Australian in that the meeting was conceived and executed via a collaboration between a professional society, academic and industrial chemists and the scientific industry. These conferences attracted between 300-400 delegates from Australia and overseas and according to surveys conducted were highly rated by the attendees.

As Convenor I had the important task of coordinating and integrating the needs of all the key stakeholders in the organization and providing the leadership required to keep the participants actively engaged in what was for many voluntary contributions. The successful academic and financial outcome of all of the conferences is I believe a reflection of my ability to manage and focus people with a range of interests into an effective team and to maintain fiscal responsibility.

I was also responsible for the generation of the scientific program for these conferences, the choice of the scientific themes and the recruitment of eminent chromatographers from all over the world to make plenary presentations.

As Convenor of the RACI Chromatography Interest Group I was responsible for the organization of the lecture tours throughout Australia by the following eminent analytical chemists:

Professor W.G. Jennings, University of California, Davis (twice), 

Professor P. Schreier, University of Wurzburg, 

Dr. S.B. Hawthorne

Energy and Environmental Research Centre

University of North Dakota.

Professor Milton Lee, University of Utah

Professor Carl Bicchi, University of Turin. 

Community service via contribution to NATA, the National Association of Testing Authorities. During the development of the BSc degree program at Hawkesbury a subject based on the requirements of industry in the areas of chemical and microbiological quality control systems was devised. This subject was developed in association with NATA so that the students would develop the knowledge and skills to enable them to undertake NATA registration procedures in the workplace. As part of the team presenting this subject I developed sufficient knowledge of NATA procedures to be invited by the organization to become a NATA laboratory assessor. This voluntary position carries out the important function of providing expert independent advice to NATA about the quality of the laboratories it accredits. This task is both a considerable contribution to the scientific community but also provides valuable case studies and insights which have been incorporated into our teaching program. 

Nominated referee: Dr Clarrie Ng. 

Dr Clarrie Ng is a Senior Research Scientist at Arnotts and is the current Chairman of the NSW Royal Australian Chemical Institute Analytical Group. I have been a member of the RACI for many years and Clarrie and I worked together on the Committee of the above Group for at least the last fifteen years. This committee organises a regular series of events aimed at providing continuing education opportunities for its membership. More specifically Clarrie was the Treasurer of the Organising Committee for the Chromatography Conferences held in Sydney in 1992, 1994 and 1996. As such he can provide an insight into the contribution I made to the successful organization and implementation of these important meetings and on the leadership role I undertook.

He was also a member of the small groups that organised the visits of the eminent chemists from overseas and will be able to comment on my role in bringing these to fruition.

 Academic Leadership in Scholarship and Research.

When I joined the Hawkesbury Agricultural College in 1974 I came from a strong research background having spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and three years as a Research fellow at the Australian National University. However the demands of the time were to develop student enrolment, diversify academic programs and deal with rapid growth and this remained a major institutional priority until the mid 80’s. Facilities for research in chemistry and related areas were minimal. However I commenced a program of recruitment of research capable staff and of purchasing the necessary basic chemical instrumentation to commence some research projects. These beginnings together with the changing external environment lead me to resign my role as Academic Board Chair in 1988 and devote more time to fostering and establishing a relevant research program. A major motivation for this step was to lead by example and prove to my colleagues that valid research could be carried out in the environment of the time. The first product of this work in the field of fruit flavours was published in 1987 and this has been followed over subsequent years by a steady output of publications in this area that has generated a national and international reputation for the group and has resulted in invitations to make presentations at a number of American Chemical Society meetings and at the Weurmann Flavour Conference in Europe. This work has now developed in a way that I believe exemplifies my ability to work across disciplinary boundaries. By combining my research skills with those of colleagues in Horticulture we were able to publish a series of papers ( see papers 30, 35, 36, 41, 44 and 48 in bibliography) which shed new light on the biochemistry of fruit ripening and has generated considerable interest in this field. The fruit flavour work led me back to an old interest of mine, natural products chemistry particularly that of the essential oils. In the early 90’s we began an interaction with some industry people interested in the use of essential oils (particularly Australian tea tree oil ) in healthcare products. This ultimately led in 1996 to the award of a contract research project worth $1.6m over two years to investigate the mechanism by which tea tree oil exerted its antibacterial action. As the project leader and principal investigator I was involved with generating the proposal and establishing and leading a team of microbiologists, biochemists, molecular biologists and chemists both within and without UWS. The project was successfully concluded in 1998-99 by the production of a comprehensive report to the contractors. The academic outcomes of this work are demonstrated in publication nos. 32, 33, 38, 39, 40, 46. 

As a further extension of this work a collaboration between Southern Cross University, the Australian Tea Tree Oil Research Institute and ourselves resulted in the award in 1998 of an ARC SPIRT grant of three years duration which funded a postdoctoral fellow and a PhD scholarship. This work is now in its final stages.

The list of my research output in terms of publications and grants awarded over the last ten years that follows, attests I believe, to the recognition both nationally and internationally of the quality of my research and to the example that I was able to set for my colleagues. 

As further recognition of my research expertise I have been approached to act as a referee by the following internationally and DETYA recognised journals and to provide assessment for ARC and other grant applications: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Journal of Essential Oil Research, Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology, Journal of Chromatography, BARD American-Israel Research Grant Scheme, Australian Research Council Grants.

Over the years I have used my professional experience leaves to supplement my research skills and have been able to work in some of the most active groups in my field around the world. This commenced in 1977 with six months at the University of California at Davis with Professor W.G. Jennings, six months at Macquarie University, 1987 ( Dr B Batts), six months at the University of Ghent, 1993 (Professor P. Sandra), three months at Washington State University, 1999 ( Professor J. Fellman) and three months at the Australian Tea Tree Oil Research Institute, 1999, (Southern Cross University, Lismore). 

Higher degree teaching and supervision. 

I was the principal supervisor of the first PhD to be awarded by UWS to Sharon Armstrong. I have subsequently been the principal supervisor of the following successful PhD and MSc(Hons) candidates; Charles Cornwell, Shane Griffin, Yasmin Wang. Three further PhD students, Victor Wong, Alan Sweeny and Dimitrios Zabaras will complete their experimental work this year. Theses from PhD students Paul Gersbach, Chris Benson and Diedre Tronson are in the final draft stage of preparation. 

I was cosupervisor for the following PhD students, John Golding (successful), Andrew Hayes (in examiners hands), Amanda Hayes (successful), Fili Pratama (in examiners hands), Sue Reed (with examiners), Marica Solina (writing up) and MSc(Hons) student Regina Zabaras (final draft stage). I was appointed a cosupervisor for a PhD student at the University of Sydney (continuing), at the University of Technology (successful) and the Australian National University (successful). I have supervised a considerable number of Honours projects over the years and a significant proportion of these have continued on to win government or University scholarships and commence PhD programs.

I have been an external examiner for PhDs from the University of NSW (3), University of Otago NZ (1), University of Adelaide (1) and Charles Sturt University (1). 

Planning of the Tebbutt Science Building at the Hawkesbury campus.

I add this achievement in this research context since, although not totally research oriented, it illustrates both my approach to the needs of modern research and my involvement in attempting to translate this into concrete outcomes. I was the Chair of the small team that worked with the consulting architect to design this building which was required to provide both undergraduate science laboratory teaching facilities and a research laboratory to accommodate the needs of postgraduate students working in the areas of chemistry, biology and biochemistry. Overall I believe that there is a consensus among the staff who work in the building that it both a pleasant place to work and a very efficient design. In particular the research laboratory ‘without walls’ has proved to be very successful with students in all sorts of areas interacting together and producing a very active multidisciplinary learning environment that I believe forms a very important part of their postgraduate education.

Research Output. The following lists record my research output in the form of publications, conference presentations and grants awarded over the course of my career.

The names underlined in these lists are those of my research students and demonstrate that their work is being published in international refereed journals of high repute and that they are being encouraged to publish their research for critical scrutiny.

To focus on my recent research output, in the period 1990-2000 my overall record can be summarised as follows.

Refereed publications according to DETYA specification:- 30 with 7 more published or in press for 2001

Conference presentations:- 23 since 1993

Successful research grants in which I have been a named investigator:- total value of just over $2,400,000. In addition I was the prime UWS participant in the successful ARC infrastructure application with the University of Wollongong for the purchase of advanced mass spectrometry instrumentation to which UWS now has access.

Higher degree completions:- Eight as either supervisor or co-supervisor, with another three in the examination phase and three completing theses.

Additionally I have been variously, Director and co-Director of the Centre for Biomolecular and Biostructural Research (CBBR) a UWSH research centre of which I was a cofounder in 1990. This centre has now been designated a UWS Key Research Centre on the basis of its research performance over the last three years. 

Referees:-Research and Scholarship

Nominated referees: Professor Don Mottram, Professor of Food Chemistry, University of Reading. Professor Mottram pays comparatively frequent visits to Australia because of a long standing research collaboration with staff a CSIRO Food Research. Because of our mutual interest in the analysis of flavour volatiles of foods we met at conferences devoted to this topic and subsequently in Australia. Don is a world leader in his field and is well recognised as such among his peers. Recently he has been involved in a project involving the aroma characteristics of transgenic melons and has used our published work on melon aromas as a benchmark for his work and we have discussed this on a number of occasions. Because of this interaction and the fact that he has attended numerous conferences where I have presented our work I consider he will be able to offer a knowledgeable but objective analysis of the standard and international standing of the research work I have published over the last decade.

Professor Carlo Bicchi. Professor Bicchi is on the staff of the Faculty of Pharmacology at the University of Turin and has an international reputation as an outstanding analytical chemist with a particular interest in the analysis of food volatiles. He is an editor of one of the leading journals in the field, Flavour and Fragrance and we have published some of our research in this journal in recent years so he is familiar with our work. Again we have met frequently at conferences and as a result in 1998 when he was invited to present a plenary lecture at a conference in New Zealand I arranged for him to visit Sydney and present a lecture on some of his work. He also took the opportunity to visit Hawkesbury and talk with my graduate students and look at our facilities and the techniques we have developed. Again he would bring a reasonable and relatively objective knowledge of the type and standing of my research output and the status of my international research reputation.

Appendix.

To view the collected papers Grant made to university management over the years go to Grant's Documents Appendix. 

Various research and other documents are also held here. 

 RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS  

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ( refereed publications as per DETYA definition).

1. Corbett, R.E and Wyllie, S.G. (1964), Extractives from the New Zealand Myrtaceae, Part VII.  Neutral and Phenolic Compounds from the Bark of L. Scoparium.  J. Chem. Soc., 251, 1283.

2. Corbett, R.E. and Wyllie, S.G. (1966), The Structure of Rimuene.  J. Chem. Soc. (C) 1737.

3. Wyllie, S.G. and Djerassi, C. (1968), Mass Spectrometric Fragmentations Typical of Sterols with Unsaturated Side Chains.  J. Org. Chem. 35, 305.

4. Cavill, G.W.K., Clark, D.V., Howden, M.E.H. and Wyllie, S.G. (1970), Hydrocarbon and other Lipid Constituents of the Bull Ant.  J. Insect Physiol.,  16, 1721.

5. Wyllie, S.G. (1972), Mass Spectra of Some Steroidal Diols.  Org. Mass Spec., 6, 559.

6. Altree-Williams, S., Howden, M.E.H., Keegan, J.T., Malcolm, H.D.R. and Wyllie, S.G. (1975), Acidic Growth Inhibitors from Peach Buds.  Aust. J. Plant Physiol., 2, 105.

7. Wyllie, S.G., Tokes, L. and Djerassi, C. (1977), Electron Impact Induced Fragmentation of Cholesterol and Related C-5 Unsaturated Steroids.  J. Org. Chem., 42, 725.

8. Jennings, W.G., Alves, S. and Wyllie, S.G., (1977), WCOT Glass Capillary Columns in Flavour Chemistry.  Chromatographia, 10, 426.

9. Fleming, W.J., Salathe, R., Howden, M.E.H. and Wyllie, S.G. (1976), Isolation and Partial Characterisation of Steroid Glycosides from the Starfish Acanthaster Planci.  Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 53, 267.

10. Wyllie, S.G., Alves, S., Jennings, W.G. and Filsoof, M.F. (1978), Headspace Sampling: Use and Abuse in "Analysis of Foods and Beverages", ed. G. Charalambous, Academic Press.

11. Wyllie, S.G., Brophy, J.J., Cook, D. and Richter, K. (1987), Volatile Flavour Components of Annona atemoya (Custard Apple). J. Agric. Food Chem., 35, 768. 

12. Hibbert, D.B., Finlayson, R., Psarros, J., Leach, D.N., and Wyllie, S.G. (1989), ICPAES, HPLC and HRGC Analysis of Cucumis melo:  The Impact of Nutrient Status on Eating Quality.  In: Food Forums Proceedings, RACI 10th Analytical Conference, pp 121-132.

13. Wyllie, S.G. and Brophy, J.J. (1989), The Leaf Oil of Liquidambar styraciflua, Planta Medica, 55, 316.

14. Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Sarafis, V. and Spooner-Hart, R. (1989), Chemical and Biological Parameters of Some Cultivars of Cucumis melo, Acta Horticulturae, 247, 353-357.

15. Wyllie, S.G., Brophy, J.J., Sarafis, V. and Hobbs, M. (1990), The Aroma Volatiles of Pistacia lentiscus, J. Food Sci., 55, 1325-1326.

16. Wyllie, S.G. and Leach, D.N., (1990), Additional Aroma Volatiles of Cucumis melo. J. Agric. Food Chem., 38, 2042-2044.

17. Armstrong, S.A., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (1991), Nutritional Evaluation of the Lipids in Fish from Temperate Australian Waters, J. Food Science, 56, 789-790.

18. Armstrong, S.A., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (1992), Fish Species ID by HPLC Protein Profiling, Food Chemistry, 44, 147-155. 

19. Wyllie, S.G. and Leach, D.N., (1992), The Role of Sulfur Volatiles in Melon Aroma,  J. Agric. Food Chem., 40, 253-256.

20. Leach, D.N., Wyllie, S.G., Hall, J.G. and Kyratzis, I, (1993), Enantiomeric Composition of the Oil of Melaleuca alternifolia, J. Agric. Food Chem., 41, 1627-1632.

21. Armstrong, S.G., Wyllie, S.G. and Leach, D.N., (1993).  Effects of Preservation by Gamma-irradiation on the Nutritional Quality of Australian Fish, Food Chem, 50, 351-357.

22. Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Wang, Y, and Shewfelt, R.L (1994), Sulfur Volatiles in Cucumis melo cv Makdimon(muskmelon), In "Sulfur Volatiles in Foods", American Chemical Society, Symposium Series 564, 36-62.

23. Armstrong, S.G., Wyllie, S.G. and Leach, D.N., (1994).  Effects of Season and Location of Catch on the Fatty Acid Composition of Some Australian Fish Species, Food Chem. 51(3) 295-306.

24. Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Wang, Y. and Shewfelt, R.L. (1994). Sensory Evaluation by GCO of Sulfur Volatiles in Cucumis melo, In “Sulfur Volatiles in Foods”, eds., Mussinan, C.J. and Keelan, M.E.,  American Chemical Society, Symposium Series 564, Washington, DC.

25. Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Wang, Y, and Shewfelt, R.L., (1995), Key Aroma Compounds in Melons: Their Development and Cultivar Dependence, In "Advances in Fruit Flavors", American Chemical Society, Symposium Series Publication 596, 248-257.

26. Cornwell, C.P., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (1995). Incorporation of Oxygen-18 into Terpinen-4-ol from the H218O Steam Distillates of Melaleuca alternifolia(Tea tree). J. Essential Oil. 7, 613-620.

27. Benson, C.G., Fitt, G.P. Leach, D.N., Mares, C.L. Naiker, M.N. and Wyllie S.G., (1995)., Volatile terpenes and terpenoid aldehydes in Australian-grown Gossypium hirsutum L. cultivars and lines., In “Challenging the Future,  Proceedings of the World Cotton Research Conference I “., eds., Constable, G.A. and Forrester, N.W., CSIRO, Australia.

28. Wang, Y., Wyllie, S.G. and Leach, D.N., (1996), Chemical Changes during the Development and Ripening of the Fruit of Cucumis melo (cv Makdimon), J. Agric. Food Chem., 44, 210-216.

29. Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N. and Wang, Y., (1996), Development of Flavor Attributes in the Fruit of C. melo during Ripening and Storage, In “Biotechnology for Improved Foods and Flavors”, eds., Takeoka, G.R., Teranishi, R., Williams, P.J. and Kobayashi, A., American Chemical Society, Symposium Series 637, Washington, DC.

30. Wyllie, S.G.; Golding, J.B.; McGlasson, W.B.; Williams, M. The Relationship Between Ethylene and Aroma Volatiles Production in Climacteric Ripening Fruit.  In Food Flavors: Formation, Analysis and Packaging Influences.  Contis, E.T., Ho, C.-T., Mussinan, C.J., Parliament, T.H., Shahidi, F. and Spanier, A.M. Eds.,  Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998

31. Brophy, J.J., Goldsack, R.J., Cornwell, C.P., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (1998) (Z)-b-Ocimene from Two Species of Homoranthus (Myrtaceace). J. Essential Oil Res. 10, 229-233.

32. Cox, S.D., Gustafson, J.E., Mann,C.M., Markham, J.L., Liew, Y.C., Hartland, R.P., Bell, H.C., Warmington, J.R. and Wyllie, S.G., (1998) Tea Tree oil causes K+  leakage and inhibits glucose dependant respiration in Escherichia coli. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 26, 355-358.

33. Gustafson, J.E., Liew, Y.C., Chew, S., Markham, J.L., Bell, H.C., Wyllie S.G. and Warmington, J.R., (1998), Effects of tea tree oil on E. coli., Letters in Applied Microbiology, 26, 194-198.

34. Millington, S., Leach, D.N., Wyllie, S.G. and Claridge, A.W., Aroma Profile of the Australian truffle-like fungus Mesophellia glauca, In “Flavor Analysis: Developments in Isolation and Characterisation”. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 705, Washington DC, 1998, 331-342.

35. Golding, J.B.; Shearer, D.; Wyllie, S.G.; McGlasson, W.B., (1998), Application of 1-MCP and Propylene to Identify Ethylene Dependent Ripening Processes in Mature Banana Fruit. Postharvest Biol. Tech., 14, 87-98.

36. Golding, J.B., Shearer, D., McGlasson, W.B. and Wyllie, S.G., (1999), Relationships between Respiration, Ethylene, and Aroma production in Ripening Banana, J.Agric. Food Chem. , 47, 1646-1651.

37. Samman, A. and Wyllie, S.G., (1999), The use of a Programmable Vaporiser in the Thermal Desorption Mode for the Quantitative Analysis of Airborne Volatiles, J. Chromatographic Sci., 37,215-218.

38. Griffin, S.G., Wyllie, S.G., Markham, J.L. and Leach, D.N., (1999), The Role of Structure and Molecular properties of Terpenoids in Determining their Antimicrobial Activity, Flavour and Fragrance Journal, 14, 322-332.

39. Griffin, S.G., Wyllie, S.G, and Markham, J.L., (1999),  Determination of Octanol-Water Partition Coefficient for Terpenoids using Reversed-Phase High-performance Chromatography, Journal of Chromatography A 1, 864, 221-228.

40. Cox, S.D., Mann, C.M., Markham, J.L., Bell, H.C., Gustafson, J.E., Warmington, J.R. and Wyllie, S.G., (2000),  The Mode of Antimicrobial Action of the Essential Oil of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil), Journal of Applied Microbiology, 88, 170-175.

41. Wyllie, S.G. and Fellman, J.K., (2000), Formation of Volatile Branched Chain Esters in Bananas (Musa sapientium L.), Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 48, 3493-3496.

42. Cornwell C.P., Reddy N., Leach D.N., Wyllie S.G., (2000), Origin of (+)-delta-cadinene and the cubenols in the essential oils of the Myrtaceae. Flavour & Fragrance Journal, 15(5), 352-361.

43. Cornwell C.P., Reddy N., Leach D.N., Wyllie SG., (2000), Hydrolysis of hedycaryol: the origin of the eudesmols in the Myrtaceae. Flavour & Fragrance Journal, 15(6), 421-431.

44. Golding, J.B., McGlasson, W.B. and Wyllie, S.G., (2001), Relationship between production of ethylene and a-farnesene in apples, and how it is influenced by the timing of diphenylamine treatment, Postharvest Biology and Technology, 21, 225-233.

45. Zabaras, D., Wyllie, S.G., (2001), The Effect of Mechanical Wounding on the Composition of Essential Oil from Ocimum minimum L. Leaves, Molecules, 6(2), 79-86.

46. Cox, S.D., Mann C.M., Markham J.L., Gustafson J.E., Warmington J.R., Wyllie S.G., (2001) Determining the Antimicrobial Actions of Tea tree Oil, Molecules, 6(2), 87-91.

47. Wong, V., Wyllie, S.G., Cornwell, C.P., Tronson, D., (2001), Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) of Monoterpenes from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree), Molecules, 6(2), 92-103.

48. Golding, J.G., Mc Glasson, W., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (2001), Fate of Apple peel phenolics during Cool Storage,  J. Ag. Food Chem., 49, 2283-2289.

49. Benson CG., Wyllie SG., Leach DN., Mares CL., Fitt GP., (2001),  Improved method for the rapid determination of terpenoid aldehydes in cotton. J. Ag. Food Chem., 49, 2181-2184.

50. Wyllie, S.G, Merry, K. and Leach, D.N.,  SPME and GC-AED-Olfactometry for the Detection of Trace Odorants in Essential Oils. In “Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry, The State of the Art”, American Chemical Society Symposium Series 782, American Chemical Society Washington DC, 2001, 88-99.

51. Gersbach, P.V., Wyllie, S.G. and Sarafis V. (2001). A new method for histochemical localisation of the site of monoterpene phenol accumulation in plant secretory structures. Annals of Botany. 88(4):521-525, 2001.

52. Zabaras, D., Spooner-Hart, R.N. and Wyllie, S.G., (2001) Effects of mechanical wounding on concentration and composition of essential oil from Melaleuca alternifolia leaves. In Press,  Biochemical Systematics and Ecology.

53. Sweeney AP.,  Wyllie SG.,  Shalliker RA.,  Markham JL., (2001) Xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of selected Australian native plants,  Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 75, 273-27.

54. Cornwell, C.P., Reddy, N., Leach, D.N., Wyllie, S.G., (2001) Germacradienols in the Essential Oils of the Myrtaceae,  Flavour & Fragrance Journal. 16, 263-273.

55. Gustafson, J.E., Cox, S.D.,Liew, Y.C., Wyllie, S.G., Warmington, J.R.. (2001), The bacterial multiple antibiotic resistant (Mar) phenotype leads to increased tolerance to tea tree oil,  Pathology. 33, 211-215.

56. Sweeney, A.P., Wyllie, S.G., Shalliker, R.A., (2001), The separation of stereoisomers from oligomers of low molecular weight polystyrene on a carbon clad zirconia column using a reversed phase multidimensional HPLC system,  Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies. 24(17):2559-2581.

57. Zabaras, D., Wyllie, S.G., (2001),  Quantitative analysis of terpenoids in the gas phase using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME),  Flavour & Fragrance Journal. 16(6):411-416.

58. D. R. Rudell, D. S. Mattinson, J. P. Mattheis, S. G. Wyllie, and J. K. Fellman; (2002), Investigations of Aroma Volatile Biosynthesis under Anoxic Conditions and in Different Tissues of "Redchief Delicious" Apple Fruit (Malus domestica Borkh.), Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.  50(9):2627-2632. 

59. R.A. Hayes, B.J.Richardson, S.G. Wyllie, (2002), Semiochemicals and social signaling in the wild European rabbit in Australia: I. Scent profiles of chin gland secretion from the field, Journal of Chemical Ecology. 28(2):363-384.

Recent Oral or Poster Presentations.

Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Wang, Y. and Shewfelt, R.L., (1993), Key Aroma Compounds in Melons: Their Development and Cultivar Dependence, 206th American Chemical Society Symposium  “Advances in Fruit Flavors”, Chicago, August 22-27th.

Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Wang, Y. and Shewfelt, R.L. (1993). Sensory Evaluation by GCO of Sulfur Volatiles in Cucumis melo, 206th American Chemical Society Symposium,“Sulfur Volatiles in Foods”, Chicago, August 22-27th.

Chen, J., Wyllie, S.G. and Sandra, P., Experiments with Size-Exclusion Material in Microchromatography. Part 2: Performance Characteristics of Microbore Columns and Evaluation of their Temperature Dependence. Fifteenth International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography, May 24-27th, 1993, Riva del Garda, Italy

Wyllie, S.G., David, F. and Sandra, P., Headspace Analysis of Aroma Volatiles using a Temperature Programmable Injector. Fifteenth International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography, May 24-27th, 1993, Riva del Garda, Italy

Griffin, S., Wyllie, S.G., Markham, J.L. and Leach, D.N., Determining the Properties of Terpenoids Associated with their Antimicrobial Action. Royal Australian Chemical Institute Natural Products Chemistry Group Symposium, October 2nd 1998.

Cornwell, C.P., Leach, D.N. and Wyllie, S.G., Cubebols in the Myrtaceae., Royal Australian Chemical Institute Natural Products Chemistry Group Symposium, October 2nd 1998.

Zabaras, D., Wyllie, S.G., Spooner-hart, R.N., Tronson, D., and Cornwell, C.P., Defensive Chemistry of the Greenhouse Thrip, Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouche) (Thysanoptera: thripidae)., Royal Australian Chemical Institute Natural Products Chemistry Group Symposium, October 2nd 1998.

Regina., Richardson, B.J. and Wyllie, S.G., Chemical Communications in Some Australian Marsupials., Royal Australian Chemical Institute Natural Products Chemistry Group Symposium, October 2nd 1998.

Golding, J.B., Shearer, D., McGlasson, W.B. and Wyllie, S.G. The Effects of 1-MCP Application on Selected Parameters of Ripening Bananas. Biology and Biotechnology of the Plant Hormone Ethylene II. , Santorini, Greece, September 5-8th, 1998.

Golding, J.B., Shearer, D., McGlasson, W.B. and Wyllie, S.G. The Relationships between the Ethylene and Respiratory Climacterics and Aroma Volatiles Production in Bananas. Biology and Biotechnology of the Plant Hormone Ethylene II. , Santorini, Greece, September 5-8th, 1998.

S.Griffin, S.Grant Wyllie, J. Markham and D.N.Leach The Role of Structure and Solubility in Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Terpenoids Against Select Human Pathogens. Phytochemical Society of North America Conference, Pullman, Washington, USA, July 27-31, 1998.

A.J. Hayes, B. Markovic and S. Grant Wyllie The Use of in vitro Percutaneous Absorption and Immunohistochemical techniques for Assessing the Toxicity of Australian Plant Extracts. 3rd World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, Bologna, Italy, 29th August-2nd September, 1999. 

S. Grant Wyllie, Kerry-Ann Merry and David. N. Leach, SPME and GC-AED-Olfactometry for the Detection of Trace Odorants in Essential Oils. 218th American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, August 22-26, 1999.

Pratama, F., Shalliker, R.A., Wormell, P., Wyllie, S.G. and Chesterman, C. (1999) Development of a rice-flour GC column for studying the interaction of aroma compounds and rice, 7th Annual Research and Development Topics Conference, University of New South Wales, 6–8 December 1999.

Pratama, F., Wormell, P., Wyllie, S.G. and Chesterman, C. (1999) Comparison of methods for the determination of aroma release from aromatised rice, 7th Annual Research and Development  Topics Conference, University of New South Wales, 6–8 December1999.

Wyllie, S.G., Pratama, F., Wormell, P. and Chesterman, C. (1999) Aroma absorption and release by rice, 218th American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans LA, USA, 22–26 August 1999.

Chohan, S. Cornwell, C., Wyllie, S.G., Leach, D.N., Henry, R., Baverstock, P. and Shelton, D. Isolation and Characterisation of Terpene Synthases in Australian Tea Tree (M. alternifolia), 4th European Symposium on Plant Isoprenoids April 21-23, Barcelona, Spain.

Chohan, S., Cornwell, C. and Wyllie, S.G., Sabinene Hydrate Synthase in Australian Tea Tree (M. alternifolia), RACI Natural Products Symposium October 1, 1999.

Griffin, S., Dennis, G. and Wyllie, S.G. Using Atomic Force Microscopy to View the Effects of Terpenoids on the Stability and Packing of Phosphatidylcholine Supported Lipid Bilayers. Presented at RACI Analytical Chemistry Division. 7th Annual Research and Development Topics Conference, University of New South Wales, 6-8 December 1999.

Griffin, S., Wyllie, S.G. and Markham, J.  Determination of Octanol-Water Partition Coefficient (log P) for Terpenoids Using Reversed -Phase HPLC.  Australian International Symposium on Analytical Science – Incorporating Chromatography 99. July 11-15 1999.

Griffin, S., Wyllie, S.G. and Markham, J. Determination of Octanol-Water Partition Coefficient (log P) for Terpenoids Using Reversed -Phase HPLC. RACI Natural Products Group One Day Symposium, October 1st, 1999.

Sweeney, A, Wyllie, S.G., Markham J. and Shalliker, R.A. (1999) The Isolation, Purification and Identification of Bioactive constituents from Australian Native Plants. 7th Annual Research and Development Topics Conference, University of New South Wales, 6–8 December1999.

Wong, V., Shalliker, R. A, Wyllie S.G., and Markham, J (1999) Towards a Better Chromatography Column. 7th Annual Research and Development Topics Conference, University of New South Wales, 6–8 December1999.

Research Grants Obtained(1990-present).

                     Title                                                                  Value

"Biological & Chemical Parameters of Melons"                        $11,000

UWSH Internal Grant

"Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Biological Materials"              $  3,000

UWSH Internal Grant

Purchase of a GCMS                                                                       $85,000

UWSH Infrastructure  Grant 

"Applications of High & Low Field NMR Spectroscopy for the 

Analysis of Tea Tree Oil".                                                       $  5,000

RIRDC Grant

"Analysis of Chiral Bioactive Compounds"                               $  5,000

UWSH Internal Grant

“Quality Characteristics of Melons”                                         $11,000

UWSH Internal Grant

“The Physicochemical Quality Parameters of Melons”             $40,000

Industry Sponsor

“Sulfur Volatiles in the Aroma of Melons”                                 $  8,500

UWSH Internal Grant

UWS,H Research Infrastructure Grant HPLC Equipment                  $120,000

“Properties of some Enzymes involved in the Aroma Production of 

Ripening Fruit”  ARC Small Grant                                           $26,300

“Biocides in Cotton”                                                               $75,000

Cotton Research Corporation Grant

“Genetic Study of the Cucurbitacae”                                                 $20,000

UWSH Internal Grant

Mode of Action of Tea Tree Oil (with Genetica Biotechnologies)          $1,600,000

Industry Contract Research

Genetic and Biochemical Factors Controlling the Composition

and Quality of the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia

ARC SPIRT Grant with Southern Cross University                             $240,000

 CURRICULUM VITAE

NAME:                    Stuart Grant Wyllie

EDUCATION:         B.Sc., University of Otago, N.Z., 1959, M.Sc. (1st Class Hons.) University of Otago, N.Z., 1960, Ph.D.(Organic Chemistry) University of  Otago, N.Z., 1964. 

EXPERIENCE SINCE GRADUATION:

ACADEMIC, TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES 

1961-64:       Assistant Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, New Zealand.

1970-1974:    Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, New South Wales Institute of Technology (now the University of Technology, Sydney). 

1974- 1982:   Senior Lecturer and Head, Department of Chemistry, School of Food Sciences, Hawkesbury Agricultural College.

1983-1986:    Head of the Department of Applied and Environmental Sciences.

Hawkesbury College of Advanced Education

1984-1998:    Chairman, Hawkesbury College of Advanced Education Academic Board.

1986-1990:    Associate Dean(Resources), for the Faculty of Science and Technology,     University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury.

1994-1997:    Head, School of Science, Faculty of Science and Technology.

                     University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury.

1995-1996     Acting Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology.

1995-1997     Member, UWS Academic Board

1997-2001        Member, UWS Academic Senate

1998-2001     Deputy Chair, UWS Academic Senate

1998-2000     Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology

2000- present          Interim Dean, College of Science, Technology and Environment

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: 

Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

RACI Analytical Group (NSW) committee member: 1984-present.

President, RACI Analytical Group (NSW): 1990-91. 

Chairman, Chromatography Interest Group: 1985-1996.

Convenor of the Organising Committee for the conferences ‘Chromatography 92’, ‘Chromatography 94’ and ‘Chromatography 96’. A joint RACI, scientific industry sponsored activity.

RESEARCH POSITIONS. 

1965:            Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales.  This position involved the isolation and identification of biologically active compounds (pheromones) from insects.

1966-1967:    Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Carl Djerassi, Stanford University, U.S.A. in the field of mass spectrometry.

1968-1970:    Research Fellow, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, with Prof. A.J. Birch.

1977:            Research Associate, with Professor W.G. Jennings, University of California, Davis in the field of capillary gas chromatography.

1987:            Visiting Research Fellow, Macquarie University.

1990:            Founding Member, and Director, Centre for Biostructural and Biomolecular Research, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury.

1993             Visiting Research Scientist, with Professor P. Sandra. University of Ghent, Belgium in the field of chromatography.

1998             Visiting Research Scientist  with Professor J.K. Fellman, Washington State University, USA, Visiting Scientist, Australian Tea Tree Oil Research Institute. Southern Cross University, Lismore.

Conclusion.

As a result of this application I was promoted to Professor.

I retired as the Dean of the College of Science, Technology and Engineering in early 2002.

Below is a copy of the address I gave at the event to farewell me as I retired from the position of Dean of the College of Science, Technology and Engineering in 2002.

My friends,

Respond to good wishes etc. 

In academia the accolades of one’s colleagues are always hard won and all the more highly valued.

Academics especially old academics are inveterate lecturers who generally can, given a topic, talk on for 45 minutes without a break. I claim the right to do this one last time. 

Allow me to begin with a few brief reminiscences. I was employed by Hawkesbury Agricultural College in 1974. 1 had a personal policy at that time of staying in a job for no more than 5 years so I certainly did not expect to be here 28 years later. When cleaning out my office I came across the HAC 1974 calendar. It showed that HAC had about 350 students and offered a handful of courses in a few specific fields. You can compare this with today’s progeny of that College the University of Western Sydney’s calendar. Multi volume, describing hundreds of courses and for >30,000 students. This gives you some idea of the distance we have come in, by University standards. a comparatively short time frame.

OK so why didn’t I go elsewhere? I think the changes encapsulated in the numbers I have just mentioned give you some idea of the opportunities that have come my way during those changes. I began as a Senior Lecturer and Head of a Department of Chemistry consisting of about 8 people in toto. I finished as Dean of a College with about 350 staff and 5000 students, one of the largest science and technology aggregates in the country. To do this all I had to do was to change the location of my office on the campus on average once every 5 years. So I’ve been bale to pursue multiple careers as a teacher, researcher and administrator by sitting tight and letting the organization change around me. It was a unique and exciting set of opportunities which meant somehow I never had the need to go elsewhere to find something interesting to do.

So much for history. More importantly gathered here tonight are many people who have had a direct impact on my working life. There are far too many to acknowledge individually but I feel I must make specific mention of just a few. Working in reverse chronological order I wish to pay tribute to the university’s senior managers who have been my close colleagues over the last couple of years, the VC, Jan, the DVC’s, Christine and Rob Coombes, the team of Deans, Rob Woellner, John and Wayne. Despite the intense pressure we often worked under they remained supportive, good humoured and totally committed to the development of UWS. Without their help and encouragement life would have been very much more difficult.

Then there was the Dean’s team, the HOS Jim, Steve, Athula and Rob, the Directors Jann and Alan. These are the people at the grass roots who make things happen and without their expertise support and enthusiasm we would have not got anywhere and I owe them a great deal.

Last but by no means least of this unholy trinity is the Dean’s life support system, three outstanding people without whose support and dedication I would not have survived that last couple of years. I refer of course to Chris, Darlene and Tanya. These  are the people who kept me on the right course, kept my spirits up in times of stress and unfailingly provided good advice, encouragement and caring. Without their contribution the formation of a College from a collection of bits into a coherent entity would not have proceeded as well as it has. I was singularly blessed to have a team of such quality and commitment and I will remain forever in their debt. Not only that they organized this function tonight and I think you will agree they have done a great job.

Turning the clock back even further I just want to mention a few people who have been major influences on my various careers. Graham Swain rang me one day and asked me to chair the academic board, my first step on the slippery slope of academic administration. Paul Baumgartner who as a role model and a mentor provided inspiration. David Leach whose support and expertise kept me going in research when things were hard and it would have been easy to give up, Barry McGlasson who introduced me to the wonders of fruit biochemistry, Julie Markham whose microbiological expertise rounded out the tea tree oil project, my research students some of whom are here tonight including my first and the University’s first PhD student, without their talent and tenacity my research would have gone nowhere.

And to my many other colleagues who have helped, cajoled, advised, contributed, laughed and cared I can only say thank you, its been a great experience.

And then there is the bedrock on which my career was founded the support and contribution of my family and particularly my wife Maureen. I hope the trips to foreign places and the meetings with interesting people went in some small way to make up for the days and hours of absence of both my body and mind that were consumed in me pursuing an academic career. Without that contribution I would have been nowhere.

Finally something on a broader note. As a science academic in the last half of the 20th century I suspect I have worked through the golden years of both my science and of Australian universities. It was a time when these sectors were permeated with a sense of the role of public good and were well supported by a trusting community. These values are fast disappearing and I for one am not happy to see them go. Nevertheless I remain an optimist for the future of UWS. I think it is in the right time and the right place, it has many highly talented people and a sense of as yet unrealized potential and malleability which will attract more.

It is my contention that somewhere in this world or the next I will overhear this conversation. Imagine a group of young people including one of my grand children or great grand children passing one of our campuses. A voice pipes up 'Look there is UWS, it’s a great university, I’m going to study there’. Yes says another voice 'I’m going there too, my grandad/greatgrandad worked there’ .

Again thank you for coming and for your kind wishes, these are memories I shall carry always.

My connection with the University did not stop there as I was asked to help coordinate the activities of the Capital Works group with the academic units as they reconfigured many of the teaching facilities. This was a 2-3 day a week job which lasted for a couple of years.