World News - The time issue
Our University has more than 170,000 alumni living locally, nationally and internationally. Their lives, after graduation, are as incredibly varied as the places their careers lead them. In this section, three of our Lumen “foreign correspondents” share their stories.
Reno Liu, Shanghai, China
Reno Liu is a winemaker whose passion for wine spans continents. As the Penfolds Winemaking Emissary for Greater China, he works with Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) on projects at the frontier of winemaking and international collaboration.
With a background in bioengineering, Reno came to Adelaide to study a Graduate Diploma in Wine Business (2006) followed by a Master of Oenology (2008). After working several vintages in Australia, he returned to China and took up his role in Shanghai.
Reno is excited by the opportunities present in an emerging market and his current project is a multi-country initiative across China, Australia, France and the USA.
“China’s wine industry is still young compared to the other mature wine-producing countries,” he says. “We can’t just ‘copy-paste’ or take Australia as an example. We really need to look at this project from a local perspective.”
The multi-country project has seen him travel to some of the world’s highest and most remote vineyards in Tibet, an area known as Shangri-La, set amidst jagged mountain peaks above the Lancang river. Once, a rock the size of a small child crashed through the window of Reno’s car when he was driving to the vineyard, landing in the passenger seat beside him.
Outside of his winemaking career, Reno is interested in tea. The rich tradition of growing and brewing regional teas in China, he says, has more similarities with winemaking than differences. Like wine, “a province or a region has its own famous tea. It’s been selected naturally; it’s grown on the specific terroir; it’s even sometimes paired with local cuisine”.
Dr Mark Leedham AM, Timor-Leste
Dr Mark Leedham is the co-ordinator of the Australasian Begg Orthodontic Society’s Timor-Leste Cleft Lip and Palate Program. Mark collaborates with fellow University of Adelaide orthodontic alumni Dr Simon Freezer and Dr Helen McLean AM to lead teams comprised of experienced clinicians from around Australia and postgraduate orthodontic students from the University of Adelaide. Since 2016, these teams have provided ongoing orthodontic care to communities in Timor-Leste, completing 38 trips, helping to manage almost 120 patients, and bolstering the field experience of 15 postgraduates.
The program, Mark says, offers significant benefits for those who receive care. “The orthodontic care we are able to provide not only aligns their teeth, and improves their dental health and speech, but makes a big difference to their lives.”
From his current base of Darwin, Mark regularly makes the short one-hour flight across the Timor Sea to Timor-Leste’s capital of Dili. As a forensic odontologist, he has also worked further afield with Disaster Victim Identification teams to help identify victims in the wake of crises like the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand, the tragic AirAsia plane crash in Surabaya in 2014, and the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria in 2009.
This important forensic work performed in the wake of disaster gives a vital sense of closure to the families who have lost loved ones."Giving a deceased person an identity ends the terrible uncertainty experienced when a family member is lost in a mass disaster and enables the deceased person to return to their families," says Mark.
Mark was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2023 for significant service to dental medicine, and to professional organisations.
Her Excellency Dr Serey Chea, Cambodia
Her Excellency Dr Serey Chea is the first female Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia.
She is passionate about creating a better life for Cambodians through equitable banking, promoting women’s economic empowerment and ensuring people from disadvantaged backgrounds receive proper healthcare to enhance their quality of life.
Serey’s PhD at the University (2021) explored the impact of financial inclusion and liberalisation in ASEAN economic development.
“To make sure that my children will be growing in a place where there is peace, with safety, where they have equal opportunity, where they have good access to health care and support, is my aspiration,” she says.
“And so, even though I’m not a peacekeeper, I’m only a central banker…
I think by doing my job well, I will also be able to contribute to those aspirations.”
Serey has made an impressive impact on the banking sector in Cambodia by leading important reforms, including a crackdown on fraudulent microcredit institutions and the introduction of modernised payment systems, both of which have enabled fairer and safer banking.
She is also involved in healthcare charity work: “I help fund free eye surgery for underprivileged people, or free surgery for children with cleft palates or any facial deformation.”
Meeting the people whose lives have been changed by access to health services is one of her greatest motivations. “They say ‘Thank you – I can see better now. I can contribute better to my family’. Or a child who, after surgery can smile and say, ‘Now I am proud to see myself in the mirror. I can go to school without the feeling of being bullied’. These are the moments that make me proud… but also motivate me to do more.”
Serey was awarded the Distinguished International Alumni Award by the University in 2024 in recognition of her impact.
Global impact
Our University partners with many of the world’s leading higher education institutions, research centres, corporations and government agencies.
This allows for the free flow of people and ideas – and can help shape future global leaders and provide the scale required to address some of our planet’s mostpressing challenges.
We have more than 290 partners in 47 countries, working together to have real-life impact globally. The breadth of their work is extraordinary.
Cosmic ray research – Argentina
The Pierre Auger Observatory in western Argentina is dedicated to observing cosmic rays, the highest energy particles in the universe.
Research at the observatory involves hundreds of scientists from around the world. Our University is a founding member of the collaboration and hosted the first design workshop for the Observatory in 1993.
Staff and students are involved in a range of projects. The main scientific objectives are to identify the composition of cosmic rays, patterns in their arrival directions, and structures in the cosmic ray energy spectrum.
Entrepreneurship and innovation collaboration – China
The University of Adelaide has a long-standing partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), with established collaborations including joint professional appointments, two Australia-China Joint Research Centres, a dual master’s program in winemaking and viticulture, a staff exchange agreement, a student exchange agreement, and a joint PhD agreement.
In October this year, Professor Noel Lindsay, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Entrepreneurship, and Dean of Business, Adelaide Business School, joined the Chinese Vice Minister of Education, Vice Mayor of Shanghai and President of SJTU to launch the Innovation Forum for World College Students (IFWCS) at SJTU.
IFWCS aims to promote collaboration in entrepreneurship and innovation, inspire innovative thinking, provide entrepreneurial support and empower students to address emerging challenges and shape the future together.
Indigenous study – Canada
In a significant step towards fostering global Indigenous collaboration, the University of Adelaide has embarked on a promising initiative with Canadian institutions.
The collaboration involves the University of Alberta, the University of Regina and the First Nations University. It is exploring shared experiences, opportunities for a mobility program for Indigenous staff and students, collaboration opportunities and governance structures.
This initiative underscores the University’s commitment to fostering global Indigenous partnerships and enhancing the education and cultural experiences of Indigenous communities.
Meeting global wine challenges – United States
The similar climates and wine-focused expertise of both California and South Australia are helping to drive collaborative efforts to address global challenges in wine production.
An initiative with the University of California, Davis (UCD) is addressing issues such as the impacts of climate change on viticulture and oenology.
It is being spearheaded by Professor David Block, Chair in Viticulture and Oenology at UCD, and our University’s Sue Bastian, Associate Professor in Oenology and Sensory Studies.