Nancy Millis

Dr Nancy Fannie Millis (born April 10 1922) is an Australian microbiologist, she introduced fermentation technologies to Australia, and created the first applied microbiology course taught in an Australian university

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Nancy Millis was born in Melbourne in 1922, she was the fifth child of six. She attended high school at Merton Hall, as Anglican girls grammar school, but had to leave before completing her studies when her father had a heart attack. She attended business college, the worked for a customs agent and then as a technician at the CSIRO. Millis Matriculated part-time, taking two years to complete her high school studies. The University of Melbourne refused her entry into the bachelor of science, however she could gain entry to the degree of agricultural science, in 1945 she graduated with a BAgSc, and went on to complete master's degree studying the soil organism, Pseudomonad in 1946.

Millis travelled to Papua New Guinea with the Department of External Affairs to teach women agricultural methods. However her posting was cut short due to serious illness and she was airlifted to hospital in Brisbane. After recovering from her illness she applied for a Boots Research Scholarship at the University of Bristol. She spent three years at Bristol working on the fermentation of cider, and microoganisms that can affect the process.

When she completed her PhD in 1951, Millis returned to Australia; she had hoped to work for Carlton United Brewery, but at that time they did not employ women in their laboratories. She joined the Department of Microbiology at the University of Melbourne in 1952 she worked as a demonstrator and then as a lecturer, setting up the Applied Microbiology course at the University. In 1954 Millis was awarded a Fulbright Travel Grant, she went to Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford and worked with C B Van Neil, and then to the Institute of Applied Microbiology at the University of Tokyo.

Millis was the Chancellor of La Trobe University from 1992 until her retirement in 2006.

References

• McCarthy, G.J. Millis, Nancy Fannie (1922 - ), 2004
• Morrison, S. Australian Academy of Science: Interview with Professor Nancy Millis, 2001