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A MICROBIOLOGIST IN INDUSTRY: THE CAREER OF AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN SCIENTIST
Abstract
Of Australia's women scientists of the generation born before 1930 Margaret Dick was exceptional in that her contribution was made in industry. Only in the twentieth century has scientific knowledge made it possible to preserve food by controlling the microorganisms which grown on it. Dick became Chief Microbiologist with Kraft Foods Ltd., responsible for the safety standards and microbial quality of all its products. With her technical knowledge and unique practical experience she contributed to the community, to education and to the work of the various Government bodies responsible for public health. The paper describes the work and achievements of this pioneer of food technology.
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Author and article information
Notes and References
See, for example, C. B. Schedwin (ed.), Shaping Science and Industry: A History of Australia's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987; R. W. Home (ed.), Australian Science in the Making, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988; Roy MacLeod (ed.), The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia, 1888-1988; Oxford University Press, Melbourne; 1988, M. Charlesworth, L. Farrell, T. Stokes and D. Turnbull, Life Among the Scientists: An Anthropological Study of an Australian Scientific Community, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1989.
Nessy Allen, ‘Achievement in Science: The Careers of Two Australian Women Chemists’, Historical Records of Australian Science, 10, 2, 1994, pp. 129–141.
Nessy Allen, ‘The Contributions of Two Australian Women Scientists to its Wool Industry’, Prometheus, 9, 1, 1991, pp. 81–92.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) was established in 1949 as an Australian Government research organization, replacing the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Arnold H. Johnson and Martin S. Peterson, Encyclopedia of Food Technology, The Avi Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, 1993, p. 450.
Geoffrey Campbell-Piatt, ‘Minimal Methods of Food Preservation’, Food Science and Technology Today, 2, 2, 1988, p. 97.
Syd Green, Keyguide to Information Sources in Food Science and Technology, Mansell Publishing Ltd., London, 1985, p. 3.
ibid., p.6.
K. T. H. Farrer, A Settlement Amply Supplied: Food Technology in Nineteenth Century Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1980, p. 1.
Josephine M. Bastian, D. McG.McBean and M. B. Smith, Fifty Years of Food Research, CSIRO, Melbourne, 1979, p. 33.
ibid., p. 143.
Roy E. Morse, ‘Food Technology in Australia: A Review of its History’, Food Technology, 31, 11, 1977, p. 42.
Bastian, McBean and Smith, op. cit., p. 204.
An Australian Experience’, Fifty Years of Fine Foods, Kraft In-house Publication, 1976.
The information on Kraft Foods Ltd. is from Joseph Vondra, A Guide to Australian Cheeses, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1971, pp. 103–108.
Bastian, McBean and Smith, op. cit., p. 64.
ibid., p. 77.
ibid., p. 86.
From an interview with Margaret Dick. Unless otherwise indicated, all the statements made by Margaret Dick are from interviews conducted by the author.
Award of Merit - the first 25 Years’, Food Technology in Australia, 35, 9, 1983, p. 408.
J. R. Vickery, Food Science and Technology in Australia: A Review of Research since 1900, CSIRO, Australia, 1990, p. 92.
K. T. H. Farrer, ‘C. P. Callister - a Pioneer of Australian Food Technology’, Food Technology in Australia, 25, 2, 1973, p. 7.
Margaret I. B. Dick, Isobel T. Harrison and K. T H. Farrer, “The Microbiological Assay of Folic Acid’, Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, 26, 3, 1948, pp. 231-237, and Margaret I. B. Dick, Isobel T. Harrison and K. T. H. Farrer, “The thermostability of folic (pteroylglutamic) acid’, Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, 26, 3, 1948, pp. 239–244.
Nessy Allen, ‘Australian Women in Science: Two Unorthodox Careers’, Women's Studies International Forum, 15, 5/6, 1992, pp. 551–562.
See, for example, Barbara F. Reskin, ‘Academic Sponsorship and Scientists’ Careers’, Sociology of Education, 52, 3, 1979, pp. 129-146, and William Lyons, Don Scroggins and Patra Bonham Rule, ‘The Mentor in Graduate Education’, Studies in Higher Education, 15, 3, 1990, pp. 277–285.
Marilyn Haring-Hidore, ‘Mentoring as a Career Enhancement Strategy for Women’, Journal of Counseling and Development, 66, 3, 1987, pp. 147–148.
Stated, in a conversation with the author in June 1995, by Mrs. Vivianne Padgham, one of Dick's trainees, who worked with her for over twelve years.
Personal communication to the author by Dr. K. T. H. Farrer in May 1995.
See note 28.
Vondra, op. cit., p. 108.
See note 28.
K. A. Buckle, R. A. Edwards, M. Eyles, and W. G. Murrell (eds), Food-Borne Microorganisms of Public Health Significance, AIFST, CSIRO and the University of New South Wales, 1974. The book has been re-issued three times in two volumes. Dick's chapter appeared in the editions of 1976 and 1979 in Volume I, the theoretical volume of the work; in the 1989 edition, the chapter was supplemented with work by A. J. Grant and G. J. Linforth.
K. A. Buckle, ‘The NH&MRC and Food Microbiology’, a paper presented at the Dr. J. H. B. Christian Testimonial Symposium organized by AIFST/ASM and held at the University of New South Wales, June 1990, pp. 18–19.
Stated by Dr. J. H. B. Christian, former Chief, Division of Food Research, CSIRO, in a conversation with the author in June 1995.
Bastian, McBean and Smith, op. cit., pp. 188–9.
Professor S. D. Rubbo, under whom the Department expanded greatly and attracted many women students.
Nessy Allen, ‘Australian Women in Science - A Comparative Study of Two Physicists’, Metascience, 8, 2, 1990, pp. 75–85.
Frank Fenner (ed.), History of Microbiology in Australia, Brolga Press, Canberra, 1990, p. 490.
See note 34.
See note 34.
For example J. T. Bruer, ‘Women in Science: toward Equitable Participation’, Science, Technology and Human Values, 9, 3, 1984, pp. 3-7; J. R. Cole, ‘Women in Science’, American Scientist, 69, 4, 1981, pp. 385–91.
M. S. White, ‘Psychological and Social Barriers to Women in Science’, Science, 170, 3956, 1970, pp. 413–6.
See note 27.
See note 34.
See note 27.
Stated, in a conversation with the author in June 1995, by Mrs. Ann Schmeja, one of Dick's trainees, who worked with her for over ten years.
Margaret I. B. Dick, ‘Fermentation for Food’, Cells in Ferment, Canberra, Australian Academy of Science, 1983, pp. 5–17.
Stated by G. N. Cooper, formerly Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of New South Wales, in June 1991.
Dr. J. R. Vickery, first Chief, Division of Food Research, CSIRO, in a conversation with the author in June 1995.
Fenner, op. cit., p. 490.
AIFST Award of Merit 1970: Citation’, Food Technology in Australia, 22, 5, 1970, p. 215.
Award of Merit - the first 25 Years’, op. cit., p. 410.
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Handbook 1995, p. 5.
See Nessy Allen, ‘Professional Achievement and Beyond: The Careers of Two Australian Women Scientists’, Journal of Australian Studies, in press.
See note 28.
Personal communication to the author by Dr. Alan Grant in July 1995.