Person
Pitt, John Ingram (1937 - 2022)
FTSE
- Born
- 13 March 1937
Wamberal, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 23 March 2022
Late of South Turramurra, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Food scientist and Microbiologist
Summary
John Pitt was a leading microbiologist with expertise in the microfungi that cause food spoilage and produce mycotoxins that can cause illness. In a career of over 50 years at CSIRO Pitt conducted pioneering research on isolating and identifying food borne fungi with his colleague Ailsa Hocking. Pitt became an authority on fungi that produce specific toxins, such as aflatoxin in Australian peanuts, and in developing biocontrol methods for such toxins. He established CSIRO's FFR fungal culture collection, now a major collection specialising in fungi that are important in food and industrial applications. Among his major publications were The genus Penicillium and its telemorphic states Eupenicillium and Talaromyces (1980) and, with Hocking, Fungi and food spoilage (1974), published in three editions and now a major text on food mycology.
Details
Chronology
- 1954 - 1960
- Career position - Technical Assistant, CSIRO Division of Food Preservation and Transport
- 1960 - 1963
- Career position - Technical Assistant, CSIRO Division of Food Preservation
- 1963 - 1970
- Career position - Experimental Officer, CSIRO Division of Food Preservation
- 1968
- Education - PhD, University of California, Davis, California, USA
- 1968 - 1969
- Career position - Postdoctoral Fellow, Northern Regional Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, Peoria, Illinois, USA
- 1970 - 1971
- Career position - Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Preservation
- 1971 - 1972
- Career position - Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Research
- 1972 - 1978
- Career position - Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Research
- 1977 - 2022
- Award - Fellow, Australian Society for Microbiology
- 1978 - 1986
- Career position - Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Research
- 1979 - 2022
- Award - Fellow, Australian Institute for Food Science and Technology
- 1986 - 1988
- Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Research
- 1988 - 1992
- Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Processing
- 1988 - 2002
- Career position - Member, International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods
- 1990 - 2019
- Career position - Member, International Commission for Food Mycology
- 1990 - 2019
- Career position - Member, International Commission for Penicillium and Aspergillus
- 1991
- Award - Distinguished Service Award, Australian Society for Microbiology
- 1992 - 1997
- Career position - Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Food Science and Technology
- 1992 - 2002
- Career position - Chief Research Scientist, Food Science Australia
- 1994
- Award - Janssen-Cilag ASM Mycology Award, Australian Society for Microbiology
- 1996
- Award - Award of Merit, Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology
- 1997
- Award - Foundation Fellow, International Academy of Food Science and Technology
- 1998
- Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE)
- 2000 - 2010
- Career position - Member, Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants
- 2000 - 2022
- Award - Honorary Life Membership, Australian Society for Microbiology
- 2001
- Award - Centenary Medal - for service to Australian society in food science and technology
- 2001 - 2022
- Award - Honorary Life Membership, Mycological Society of America
- 2002 - 2019
- Career position - Honorary Research Fellow, CSIRO
- 2002 - 2022
- Award - Honorary Life Membership, British Mycological Society
- 2008 - 2012
- Career position - Member, WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group
- 2018 - 2022
- Award - Fellow, International Mycological Association
Related entries
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Anon, 'Meet John Pitt: celebrating 55 years at CSIRO', Siroscope, 50 (2009), http://www.csiro.au/news/newsletters/SIROSCOPE/2009/March09/htm/pitt.htm. Details
- Anon, 'Dr John Pitt FTSE', Impact, 213 (2022), 65, https://www.atse.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ATSE-IMPACT-213-web-version-220808.pdf. Details
Resource Sections
- Wolff, Helen, 'John Ingram Pitt', in CSIROpedia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2019, https://csiropedia.csiro.au/john-ingram-pitt/. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 3 March 2020, Last modified: 8 June 2022