Meet Deanne Catmull

Deanne believes that a safe physical and psycho-social environment is important for ensuring an optimal experience for staff and students.

“When these elements combine, it provides the perfect recipe for a successful workplace.”

In her role as a Technical Officer at the Melbourne Dental School, Deanne assists staff and students with the planning and designing of experiments, as well as the analysis of data, within Microbiology-focused projects.

In her career, Deanne designed custom-built flow cell systems that allowed her to visualise, study and analyse undisturbed biofilms on dental materials in high resolution. These flow cells were instrumental for determining the antimicrobial potential of a dental filling material called FujiVII EP, which contains Recaldent™ technology. FujiVII EP is now sold by the GC Corporation worldwide.

She also enjoys using her science and mathematical qualifications to mentor high school students who are interested in pursuing scientific endeavours. She has presented to hundreds of future university students at multiple Industry Day Program sessions, and has also supervised a student in their VCE Extended Investigation project.

“I love interacting with young, bright and passionate minds and mentoring them to follow their dreams and passions. Success and joy comes from doing what you love and whist there are always some twists and turns along the way, there are always opportunities that can be found from these and immense growth within them.”

Deanne Catmull at the Melbourne Marathon

Outside of the lab, Deanne puts aside the microscope and takes in a long view of the city by running marathons, including the Melbourne Marathon and also Run For The Kids.

For Deanne, the Melbourne Dental School is a great place to work because of its people and its vision for the future.

“We are acknowledging and supporting what we do best moving forward, but also recognising that there is room for improvement and we are pushing the reset button on all of these areas.”

“This creates new and exciting challenges for everyone and plenty of opportunities for staff and students to thrive in the future.”