Penn State Food Science Professor to Create Food Safety Endowment with Estate Pledge

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Catherine Nettles Cutter, a longtime professor of food science in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, and her husband, Lester Cutter, have pledged a $200,000 estate gift to establish the Nettles Cutter Food Safety Endowment in the Department of Food Science. Funds from the gift will support research in areas of microbial food safety and food safety education.

© Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences

Funds from the future endowment may help cover expenses for undergraduate and graduate students working in a lab, travel, materials and supplies, and its resources also can be used for undergraduate student support, such as scholarships and awards.

“Cathy has seen firsthand the importance of this type of funding in supporting both students and new avenues of research,” said Bob Roberts, head of the Department of Food Science. “The gift resonates with Cathy’s passions for food safety and for developing students. We really appreciate the Cutters’ generosity in support of Penn State Food Science.”

Cutter earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in pathobiology from the University of Connecticut and her doctorate in food technology from Clemson University. Her first job was as a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Nebraska at the Meat Animal Research Center. Looking to return to her East Coast roots, Cutter joined Penn State with a dual research and extension appointment in 1999.

During her career at Penn State, Cutter’s research and extension programs focused on food safety, food processing and meat microbiology, with a focus on food safety programs benefiting the Pennsylvania meat and poultry industries. She has received several awards during her career for her contributions to research and extension.

The inspiration for her future estate gift is two-fold, said Cutter, who credits her family’s land-grant connections and her undergraduate experiences working in a lab.

“My grandparents, my parents, my husband and my children have all attended land-grant universities and my grandfather was an extension entomologist at Clemson,” Cutter explained. “His love of agriculture influenced me early on as a child and as a college student.”

As she explored various areas of science as an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, she realized she wanted to pursue research as a career.

“When I was an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, I had the opportunity to work in a bovine mastitis lab, and that experience was truly transformative,” Cutter said. “I realize how much I loved research, and the hands-on experience helped me understand both the science and the process of discovery.”

She said she hopes this endowment will provide similar opportunities for future students to have a chance to explore hands-on research and find their passion.

“Research teaches you how to think critically, evaluate outcomes and adapt and expand your work,” Cutter said. “These are skills that translate across industries and make you a stronger contributor in any field.”

Cutter, who noted that she has received funds in support of specific research projects from the Zepp Family Food Safety Endowment, also looks at this gift as an opportunity to pay that generosity forward and honor those who mentored her.

“Somebody took a chance on me as an undergraduate, and I’d like to afford those kinds of opportunities to other students," said Cuttler. "Not all students excel in the classroom, but when they get their hands on something in a laboratory, classroom concepts come to life, and they can be light-bulb moments for a lot of people. I want students to be able to experience those types of moments, and supporting these types of research opportunities is a way for me to make that possible.”