Cait MacPhee
{{short description|Professor of Biological Physics}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
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|work_institutions = University of Edinburgh
|alma_mater = University of Melbourne
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|known_for = Biological Physics
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Catherine Elizabeth "Cait" MacPhee {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSE|FInstP|FRSC}} is a Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Edinburgh. 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. She was appointed CBE "for services to women in physics", and was subsequently elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was a finalist for the BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition, and was awarded the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society.
Education
Catherine Elizabeth, known as Cait, MacPhee is Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Edinburgh.{{cite web |title=Cait MacPhee: Physics and Life Sciences |url=http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~cmacphee/ |access-date=2015-12-31 |work=School of Physics and Astronomy |publisher=University of Edinburgh}} She studied for her BSc in biochemistry and her PhD in medicine at the University of Melbourne. She comes from a family of scientists, but had initially wanted to be a professional musician.{{Cite web |title=Professor Cait MacPhee |url=https://rse.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/women-science-exhibition/professor-cait-macphee/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Royal Society of Edinburgh |language=en-GB}} McPhee said that she initially trained in biochemistry and immunology, "but I moved across to physics when biology became just too complicated".
Career
McPhee 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.{{cite web |last=MacPhee |first=Cait |title=About me |url=http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~cmacphee/about_me.html |access-date=2015-12-31 |publisher=University of Edinburgh}}
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.{{cite news |date=2015-08-31 |title=Slow-melting ice cream ingredient discovered by scientists |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34104545 |access-date=2015-12-31 |work=BBC News}}{{cite news |date=2015-08-31 |title=Longer lasting ice-cream developed by scientists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/31/longer-lasting-ice-cream-developed-scientists |access-date=2015-12-31 |work=The Guardian}}{{cite news |last=Feltman |first=Rachel |date=2015-08-31 |title=This protein may be the key to slow-melting ice cream |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/31/this-protein-may-be-the-key-to-slow-melting-ice-cream/ |access-date=2015-12-31 |work=The Washington Post}} She was appointed CBE in the 2016 New Year Honours "for services to women in physics",{{cite news |last=Matthews |first=David |date=2015-12-31 |title=New Year Honours 2016: Paul Curran knighted and five professors appointed dames |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/new-year-honours-2016-paul-curran-knighted-and-five-professors-appointed-dames |access-date=2015-12-31 |work=Times Higher Education}} and was subsequently elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.{{cite press release |title=RSE welcomes 56 new Fellows |date=2016-03-07 |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/press/2016/The%20RSE%20welcomes%2056%20new%20Fellows.pdf |access-date=2016-03-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308060107/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/press/2016/The%20RSE%20welcomes%2056%20new%20Fellows.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2016}} In 2016 she was selected as a finalist for the BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition.{{cite web |date=2016-04-06 |title=2016 BBSRC Innovator of the Year finalists announced |url=http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/people-skills-training/2016/160406-n-innovator-of-the-year-finalists-announced/ |access-date=2016-04-06 |publisher=Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council}} In 2018 she was awarded the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society.{{cite web |title=Gabor Medal winner 2018 |url=https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/gabor-medal/ |access-date=2018-07-19 |publisher=Royal Society}}
References
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Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:University of Melbourne alumni
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of St Hilda's College, Oxford
Category:Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Institute of Physics
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Biology