The Australian Wine Research Institute

Managing Director

BSc(Agric), BSc(Agric) (Hons), MSc(Agric), PhD University of the Orange Free State

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Sakkie Pretorius has been the Managing Director of The Australian Wine Research Institute since mid 2004 and Affiliate Professor in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at The University of Adelaide since September 2003. Sakkie obtained a BSc(Agric), BSc(Agric)(Hons), MSc(Agric) and PhD from the University of the Orange Free State (South Africa) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York). His research focus has been on Wine Microbiology and Biotechnology.

His previous appointments have been Lecturer, Department of Microbiology, University of the Orange Free State; Professor and Chairman Department of Microbiology and Professor in Wine Biotechnology, Director of the Institute for Wine Biotechnology, University of Stellenbosch; Part-time Professor, Department of Food Science and Microbiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

He received the 1989 J&B Rare Achievers Award (W&A Gilbey Group & Financial Mail); 1990, 1992 Stipend from the National Research Foundation (South Africa); 1992–1995 President's Award from the National Research Foundation; 1993 BP Scholarship in Agriculture; Oppenheimer University Travelling Fellowship; Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship from the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Havenga Prize in Agricultural Sciences (SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns); 1994 Rector's Award for Excellent Tuition/Teaching (Stellenbosch University); 1996–1999 ‘A’ rating from the National Research Foundation (South Africa); 1999 Rector's Award for Excellent Research (Stellenbosch University); 1999–2003 ‘A’ rating from the National Research Foundation (South Africa).

He has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles and book chapters, and has delivered more than 500 lectures at conferences and research seminars. He has supervised and co-supervised 31 PhD students and 56 MSc students. Sakkie also speaks Afrikaans fluently and has a good understanding of Dutch and German.

Research philosophy and achievements

The environment in which scientists are doing research is in a constant state of transition. The decreasing availability of public funds for fundamental research has made scientists more and more dependent on support from private industry. The interaction among research providers and industry is not new, but changing national priorities, globalisation, shifting consumer preferences, as well as other economic and political issues are making the relationship more complex. These issues pose formidable challenges for scientists to strive for academic excellence, and at the same time to develop products that could enhance the international competitiveness of industry. However, Sakkie is of the opinion that whatever the changes and new demands, they should not be such that they erode the basic scientific base. Within this framework, he believes that research should be a careful blend of fundamental and goal-orientated applied research. Therefore, basic and applied wine research should not be treated as separate ventures. His viewpoint is that wine research should be directed toward increasing fundamental understanding in a context responsive to the applied needs of producers and consumers at levels of both problem selection and experimental design. Therefore, he believes that wine research inspired by both the quest for understanding the fundamentals and by considerations of future use, promises to be the most powerful dynamo of technological progress that would support the cost-effective production of wine with minimised resource inputs, improved product quality, increased health benefits and low environmental impact.

The following list summarises the most important achievements of Sakkie and his research team to date:

• The unravelling of the regulation of the yeast’s glucoamylase system
• The establishment of the first link between the regulation of polysaccharide degradation in yeast and pseudohyphal differentiation and cell-cell adhesion
• The development of the first prototype yeast strain that extracts more juice from pressed grapes while eliminating filter-blocking polysaccharides during winemaking
• The development of the first prototype yeast strain that produces dry wine with reduced levels of alcohol
• The development of the first prototype yeast strain with biopreservative capabilities, thereby paving the way for the possible production of fermented beverages and foods without the use of chemical preservatives
• The development of the first prototype yeast strain with the capability to produce healthy antioxidant compounds during the fermentation of both white and red grape must
• The development of the first yeast strain producing colour-liberating enzymes during the production of red wine
• The development of the first prototype yeast strain with the capability to produce natural, flavour-enhancing compounds during fermentation of wine
• The development of the first yeast strain producing aroma-liberating enzymes during the production of wine
• The development and commercialisation of the first hybrid ‘killer’ wine yeast strain with improved fermentation performance and resistance to antagonistic yeast contaminants
• The development and commercialisation of the first wine yeast strains that do not produce hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide during low-nitrogen wine fermentations)
• The development and commercialisation of the first wine yeast strain capable of converting malic acid into lactic acid during red wine fermentation
• The development and commercialisation of first multi-strain mixture of flavour-enhancing yeast strains
• The unravelling of the first full genome sequence of a wine yeast

Membership of professional societies, associations, committees and boards

• Director of company boards
• Board of The Australian Wine Research Institute Ltd
• Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference (AWITC) Pty Ltd
• Provisor Pty Ltd (2004-2006)
  
  
• Member of the editorial boards of scientific journals
• American Journal of Enology and Viticulture
• Annals of Microbiology
• FEMS Yeast Research
• Yeast
  
  
• Member of professional societies
• Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology
• South African Society of Viticulture and Oenology
  
  
• Member of councils and committees
• South Australian Wine Industry Council
• Wine Industry Technical Advisory Committee of the Winemakers' Federation of Australia
• Wine Committee of the Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of South Australia
• Management Committee of the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research
• Adelaide University's Waite Campus Management Committee