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 Animal, Food and Health Sciences, for 20 years. Catherine has worked in food microbiology for the last 15 years and has experience with a broad range of dairy, food spoilage, food safety and human health microorganisms, including Cronobacter, enterococci, Listeria, Salmonella and thermophilic spore forming bacteria. Areas of work include traditional and molecular microbiology, antibiotic resistance, heat resistance, assessment of persistence and most recently, the identification and growth of naturally occurring microflora in raw milk.