Nancy Millis

Who was Nancy Millis?

Emeritus Professor Nancy Fannie Millis AC MBE was an Australian microbiologist, who introduced fermentation technologies to Australia, and created the first applied microbiology course taught in an Australian university.

Nancy Millis was born in Melbourne in 1922, the fifth child of six. She attended high school at Merton Hall, an Anglican grammar school for girls, 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 a master's degree studying the soil organism, Pseudomonas 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.