Leigh Schmidtke

Biography

Leigh is a passionate consumer of wine having been introduced to Australian Shiraz and Chardonnay during the final year of an undergraduate degree of Medical Laboratory Science. He worked as a research microbiologist for five years at the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries in Tasmania investigating and characterising the role of a range of bacterial species as pathogens in farmed salmonids. Part of this work was the development of infection models and the identification of putative vaccination candidates to assist in control of infection disease. Leigh's work in the Australian wine industry commenced with the role of Microbiologist/Chemist for Southcorp Wines. He commenced at CSU in late 2001 teaching wine production and microbiology subjects. His PhD focused upon the chemical impact of low rate micro oxygenation on oak flavour compounds in Shiraz wine. The development and application of a range of chemometric models was used to elucidate the impact of experimental factors. The employment of advanced chemometric modelling is now a major focus of Leigh's research activities. His research areas are the development of rapid methods of analysis using spectroscopic measurements, analysis of flavour and aroma compounds, metabolomic profiling of wine and viticulture samples and determining the links between grape and wine composition, vineyard management, climate and wine sensory perception.

Research Interest

Development of rapid methods of analysis using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy