Name Margaret Brownlee | ||
Margaret Isabella Brownlee Dick (14 September 1918 – 25 September 2008) was a pioneering Australian microbiologist. She is best known for her role as Chief Microbiologist at Kraft Foods Australia and for the development of a methodology for safe food production. She was the first woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology.
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Early life
Dick was born in Melbourne to immigrant Scottish parents and descended from a long line of engineers on her paternal side.
Dick was educated at Kew State School, Mont Albert Central School (the leading central school in Melbourne at the time) and Melbourne Girls' High School. She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1941 with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a Diploma of Nutrition.
Career
After a short period working in medical microbiology in Adelaide, Dick returned to Melbourne where she won a role with the Kraft Walker Cheese Company (later Kraft Foods), quickly becoming in charge of the microbiology laboratory. It was while working at Kraft that she developed and introduced new microbiological methods into Australia for measuring a range of B group vitamins and amino acids. This research led to her completion of a Master of Science in 1955. She set the microbiology standards for all of the company's products and became an authority on bacteriophage interaction with cheese starters and the occurrence of Staphylococci in dairy products.
Dick served on a number of committees including the Australian Dairy Produce Standards Organisation, the Australian Defence Forces Food Standards Committee, the NHMRC Sub-Committee on Microbiological Food Standards and committees of the Standards Association of Australia. In 1970 she won the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology's Award of Merit and became their first woman fellow. She became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1977.
In 2001 Dick was awarded a Centenary Medal for her contributions to food science and technology.