Cait MacPhee

Cait MacPhee
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Known forBiological Physics
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh

Catherine Elizabeth "Cait" MacPhee CBE FRSE FInstP FRSC is Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Edinburgh.[1] After studying for her BSc in biochemistry and her PhD in medicine at the University of Melbourne she moved to the University of Oxford for postdoctoral research, where she was a research fellow at St Hilda's College, and subsequently held a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. From 2001-2005 she was a Royal Society University Fellow in the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge and held a research fellowship at Girton College and then a fellowship at King's College. In 2006 she moved to the University of Edinburgh, where she became Professor of Biological Physics in 2011.[2]

MacPhee's research into the BslA protein from Bacillus subtilis, together with Nicola Stanley-Wall from the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, has been widely reported because of potential applications in the production of ice cream.[3][4][5] She was appointed CBE in the 2016 New Year Honours "for services to women in physics",[6] and was subsequently elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[7] In 2016 she was selected as a finalist for the BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition.[8] In 2018 she was awarded the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society.[9]

  1. ^ "Cait MacPhee: Physics and Life Sciences". School of Physics and Astronomy. University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  2. ^ MacPhee, Cait. "About me". University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Slow-melting ice cream ingredient discovered by scientists". BBC News. 31 August 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  4. ^ "Longer lasting ice-cream developed by scientists". The Guardian. 31 August 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  5. ^ Feltman, Rachel (31 August 2015). "This protein may be the key to slow-melting ice cream". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  6. ^ Matthews, David (31 December 2015). "New Year Honours 2016: Paul Curran knighted and five professors appointed dames". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  7. ^ "RSE welcomes 56 new Fellows" (PDF) (Press release). Royal Society of Edinburgh. 7 March 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  8. ^ "2016 BBSRC Innovator of the Year finalists announced". Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Gabor Medal winner 2018". Royal Society. Retrieved 19 July 2018.