Obituaries

Appreciation: Patrick Fanahan Fox

Colleagues viewed Fox as an academic’s academic who never indulged in campus politics and had an aversion to self-publicity

Patrick Fox was head of the Department of Food Chemistry at UCC for nearly 30 years.
Patrick Fox was head of the Department of Food Chemistry at UCC for nearly 30 years.
Prof Paul McSweeney and Prof Alan Kelly
Mon Aug 12 2024 - 01:00

Patrick Fanahan Fox, professor emeritus at University College Cork, who died on July 12th aged 86, was one of Ireland’s most distinguished scientists of the 20th century and was respected internationally as perhaps the leading dairy chemist of his generation.

When Fox was an undergraduate in the 1950s, the Irish dairy industry comprised small branch creameries largely churning butter. From the 1970s to the 2010s, he was a significant influence on the scientific development of the industry as it grew to become a global behemoth with exports of €6 billion and dominated by Irish-owned multinationals such as the Kerry Group, Glanbia, Ornua, Dairygold and Carbery whose product portfolios are now dominated by ingredient powders.

Reared on a dairy farm near Mitchelstown, Fox graduated from University College Cork in dairy science before completing his PhD in 1964 at the Ivy League Cornell University. He spent post-doctoral periods at Michigan State University and the University of California Davis before returning to Ireland to what is now Teagasc Moorepark. In 1969 at the age of 32, he was appointed as professor of food chemistry at University College Cork — one of the youngest professors in the university. Over the next four decades, he led a very active group researching the heat stability of milk, cheese ripening, dairy proteins and food enzymology.

Fox was a prolific author and wrote approximately 600 research papers, reviews and book chapters and edited about 35 books. His work has been referenced nearly 50,000 times in scientific publications worldwide and he was one of the world’s top cited authors in agricultural sciences. While he gradually wound down in recent years, he never stopped writing — his latest book (co-written with colleagues) will soon be submitted to Oxford University Press.

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In online tributes, David Barbano, Professor of Food Science at Cornell University, described Fox as making “an outstanding and sustained contribution to dairy science throughout the world” and Prof Douglas Goff of Guelph University, Ontario, said his contributions to dairy science globally are immense, not only in terms of his research but through his lasting legacy of prolific writing and editing of books. Jim Woulfe, former chief executive of Dairygold, described Fox as “an exceptional lecturer, a subject matter expert and a global figurehead in the world of dairy and food chemistry” and as a great support to the Irish dairy industry.

Fox’s research was done without the support of a structured research centre and mostly before the benefit of more recent government investment in science. He attracted researchers from all over the world from the early 1970s, long before Ireland was seen as a destination for aspiring graduate students. Fox mentored 35 PhD candidates and 15 post-doctoral fellows, a high proportion of whom went on to very successful careers in industry or academia all over the world. The director of the Riddet Institute, New Zealand’s premier centre for food research, is one of Fox’s PhD graduates, as is the director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, the largest research centre of its type in North America.

He received accolades from international representative bodies including the American Dairy Science Association, the International Dairy Federation and the Society of Dairy Technology. He was also awarded the Medal of Honour by the University of Helsinki and the Senior Medal in Agricultural and Food Chemistry of the Royal Society of Chemistry (of which he was a Fellow) in addition to a higher doctorate (DSc) on published work by the National University of Ireland.

For nearly 30 years Fox was head of the Department of Food Chemistry at UCC — always insisting on exceptionally high academic standards, he was quietly spoken and had considerable gravitas. Colleagues viewed Fox as an academic’s academic who never indulged in campus politics and had an aversion to self-publicity. A polymath with many interests particularly sport and history, Fox chose to build his considerable reputation methodically in the pages of international peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Pat Fox is survived by his wife, Olive, daughters Kathy and Deirdre, son Patrick D, three grandchildren, five sisters and one brother. His brother Morgan predeceased him.

Prof Paul McSweeney and Prof Alan Kelly, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, UCC