Cheers to immigrant biochemist who popped our cork

Peter Hoj played a key role in the large-scale adoption by Australian winemakers of screw-top caps.

University of Queensland vice-chancellor Peter Hoj. Picture: AAP

University of Queensland vice-chancellor Peter Hoj, who ­received a Companion of the Order of Australia in today’s Australia Day honours, says that luck, as well as effort and whatever talent he has brought to his work, has played a major role in his career.

Certainly his life and career have taken unexpected turns. Hoj, who was born and educated in Denmark and arrived in Australia as a young biochemist, played a key role in the large-scale adoption by Australian winemakers of screw-top caps.

As director of the Australian Wine Research Institute from 1997-2004 he started a long-term study to determine how the new caps compared over time with traditional corks and other ways of sealing a wine bottle tried at that time, including plastic stoppers.

He and his colleagues measured oxygen transfer rates and sulfur dioxide loss, and a team of experts blind-tasted wines. They found screw caps were very effective for consistent wine preservation and the findings helped both the wine industry and wine drinkers to accept the change.

Another unexpected turn for Hoj came earlier, in 1995, when he was appointed as the University of Adelaide’s first professor of viticulture, despite having no background in wine research. But the university wanted a bright, young talented biochemist and Hoj fitted the bill having, at 35, won the prestigious Boehringer-Mannheim Medal — awarded to outstanding biochemists and molecular biologists under the age of 40.

Hoj’s career then turned to ­administration and management. He was CEO of the Australian ­Research Council, a powerful role that recommends how federal government research grants are allocated, and then became vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia in 2007. In 2012 he was appointed to his current job as vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland.

Hoj says his university’s high profile in translating research into practical realities chimed exactly with his scientific priorities. “UQ is out and out the most successful university for commercialisation in Australia,” he says.

Hoj’s long interest in commercialisation of research has been recognised in his Australia Day honour, which is for his service “to higher education and to science, particularly to the commercialisation of research, and to policy development and reform”.

Last month, Hoj’s record in research impact was recognised when he was named a fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with incredible people who make me look good,” he says.

Chance has not always favoured him. The worst blow came in 2004 when his Australian wife, Robyn van Heeswijck, a fellow biochemist who was responsible for his coming to Australia, died of breast cancer. “When she passed away, I thought where would it be best for the kids to live for the rest of their life, and the answer was pretty simple,” he says.

He feels it is an amazing thing that he, an immigrant who came to Australia at the age of 29, has been honoured in his adopted country.