Dr Cathy McAuley

Catherine McAuley obtained a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at the University of Melbourne and has worked at the food research complex in Werribee, Victoria in what is now part of CSIRO Food and Nutrition, since March 1993. Cathy’s initial job roles encompassed pilot plant sausage and cheese making and the accompanying physical, chemical and sensory analyses. Cathy was trained as a fish oil taste panellist for the patented encapsulation of fish oil in infant formula. Cathy has worked in food microbiology for more than 20 years and has experience with a broad range of dairy, food spoilage, food safety and human health microorganisms, including Clostridium, Cronobacter, enterococci, Listeria, Salmonella and thermophilic spore forming bacteria. Areas of work include designing and conducting experiments in traditional and molecular microbiology, antibiotic resistance, heat resistance, assessment of persistence and the identification and growth of naturally occurring microbiota in raw milk. More recently, Cathy has been involved in the use of high pressure processing and pulsed electric field for the inactivation of problematic microorganisms, and the fermentation of vegetables. Cathy graduated with a PhD in dairy microbiology from the University of Melbourne in July 2017. As part of CSIRO's contribution to the Covid-19 response, Cathy went on secondment to Seqirus (CSL) from December 2020-June 2022. At Seqirus, Cathy was working in Quality Control - Sterility to assist with the release of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as flu vaccines and antivenoms.