Cathy McAuley
Making low-fat sausages for food research was not exactly her dream job, but for Dr Cathy McAuley (BAgrSc 1992, PhD - Agricultural Sciences 2017), it opened a door to a long career in food microbiology that has been both stimulating and satisfying.
She had just graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and while she had no expectations on that first day at the Food Research Institute in Werribee, she was quietly determined to seize every opportunity that came her way. She did that with patience and purpose over the following 27 years.
Dr McAuley is a food microbiologist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food in Werribee and is one of the experts who ensures that the food we eat is safe.
“I really like figuring out bacteria and micro-organisms,” she explains. “A lot of the work I have done is on pathogens – they are bacteria, like Salmonella, that can make people sick.”
Dr McAuley works a bit like a detective. Consider the case of Cronobacter, a bacterium that was found in infant formula overseas and had caused death and serious illness. She was part of the team that carried out environmental samplings and genetic analysis to trace the origins of the bacterium in dairy factories and establish how it was able to flourish in certain environments. The work contributed knowledge to the isolation methodology for Cronobacter and influenced the International Standard for the detection of Cronobacter in infant formula.
The way she works has changed dramatically over the years.
“When I first started, we used traditional methods of microbiology – growing bacteria in Petri dishes,” she recalls. “Genetic finger-printing was just starting. Now, we have whole genome sequencing and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which multiplies bacterial cells to allow for genetic material analysis. It’s a much more accurate way of identifying bacteria.”
To thrive in food microbiology, Dr McAuley believes it’s important to be curious and to be agile, to be prepared to explore alternative ways of doing things. “You need to be willing to change and to adapt,” she says. Her personal journey speaks to those qualities.
She was 21 years old when her parents decided to leave the harsh Canadian winters to build a new life in Geelong. Dr McAuley had completed more than a year of study for a science degree at the University of Guelph in Ontario but decided to switch to agricultural science when she enrolled at the University of Melbourne.
She also believes perseverance is a helpful characteristic for a career in food microbiology. It certainly proved useful to her as she juggled motherhood and the pursuit of her PhD. She wrote more than 60,000 words for her thesis on Enterococcus, a type of environmental bacteria that can lead to illness.
Earning her PhD made her feel more complete professionally. If the BAgrSc opened the door to her career, the PhD unlocked all its possibilities.
“It gave me a lot more confidence,” she says. “It gave me a sense of achievement. It took a lot of effort, but it was worth it.”
This story was first published in Horizon, the alumni magazine of the Faculty of Science. Read the complete magazine here.