Our People

Catherine Whitby

Kia ora! My name is Catherine and I grew up in Djubuguli/Sydney, Australia. I completed a BSc (Hons) majoring in chemistry at UNSW in 1997 and a PhD in surface chemistry at UniMelb in 2001. I did postdoctoral work at the Universities of Hull, Sydney and South Australia before making the jump over the ditch to Massey in 2014. Here I teach physical chemistry and do surface chemistry research as part of the School of Food Technology and Natural Sciences. My research group works at the edges (drop and bubble surfaces) that control the properties of materials like paints, sunscreens, lubricants and dairy foods. We use the cool microscopy and rheology tools we have at Massey to look inside these colloidal materials. Our goal is to figure out how to control the chemical properties of the surfaces so we can make stable materials that flow (spread, squeeze or stick) and behave (release their encapsulated ingredients) the way we want. We are fortunate to receive funding from the MacDiarmid Institute for our work on reconfigurable materials and from the Riddet Institute for our work on plant proteins at surfaces.