Margaret Church

Margaret Brooks Church (1889–1976) was an American mycologist who specialized in ''Aspergillus'' and other fungi involved in food fermentation. She co-authored the first manual on ''Aspergillus'' with Charles Thom and worked with Thom on his treatise on ''Penicillium''. She was the first westerner to study the ang-khak fermentation of rice using ''Monascus purpureus'' (see: Church, 1920), and studied other Asian soy fermentations involving the fungus known as ''Aspergillus oryzae''. This research culminated in her writing a USDA bulletin entitled ''Soy and Related Fermentations'' in 1923. In 1928 she took on a role as the Head of Biology at Urbana University, Urbana, Ohio, before her retirement in 1939. Provided by Wikipedia