Tuesday, December 17, 2019

AAOCS member spotlight: Amy Logan

Amy Logan is the group leader for Food Quality and Safety within the Food Program of CSIRO Agriculture and Food, based at the Food Innovation Centre in Werribee, Victoria. Her group is spread across Werribee, North Ryde in New South Wales and Coopers Plains in Queensland and consists of 30 innovative individuals working in the areas of food analysis, materials, microbiology, and sensory and consumer science. Additionally, the group routinely hosts a number of national and international short-term (5–10mth) student internships and longer-term PhD students.

Amy’s background is in lipid chemistry. She conducted her Ph.D. jointly with the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment, examining the influence of genetics and environment on the chemical composition of selected canola cultivars (2002–2006). More recently, her expertise has focused on the dairy industry, working across lipid-protein and protein-protein structure function interactions. She has been an active member of the AOCS Australasian Section committee for many years and is an associate editor for the Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society (JAOCS).

Thanks to Amy for sharing a little bit about yourself!

A typical day for me … is quite varied! It can involve discussions around research strategy and capability needs within the Food Program, working together with clients to add value to the AgriFood industry, and leading an innovative science program, “Personalised Fabrication of Smart Food Systems”, within one of CSIRO’s Future Science Platforms.

My favourite part of my job is … collaborating on a national and international level to solve some really exciting scientific questions. A recent example is a successful collaboration between ourselves and four organisations across Australia and France (INRA, CNEIL, Université de Toulouse, The University of Melbourne and CSIRO): Lazzaro et al. (2020) Food Hydrocolloids, 101, 105414.

L to R: Amy Logan, Roderick Williams (CSIRO) and Fanny Lazzaro (Ph.D. student from INRA, France) loading samples on the Quokka small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) instrument at ANSTO.
The Australian arm of the work revolved around a three month visit by (then) student Fanny Lazzaro to work on both the small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) beamline at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne and the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) Beamline at ANSTO in Lucas Heights.

Away from work, I like to … find new places for craft cider and beer. With my husband being a retired wrestler, we also like to catch up with friends at local wrestling shows. The scene is growing fast here in Australia, with a number of stand-out promotions across the country, including Melbourne City Wrestling who we are most involved.

If I could go anywhere, it would be… I would love to see more of Japan. I was fortunate enough to visit Tokyo for a week last January and was completely blown away by how great the place was, including the rich culture and fabulous food.

When listening to the radio, I listen to…  mostly songs from the 80s. I love a good sing along in the car!

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