A/ProfLouise Cole

A/Prof. Louise Cole is a plant and fungal cell biologist that has over three decades of microscopy experience. She carried out her Masters degree at Oxford University where she investigated endocytosis and vesicle trafficking in cultured plant cells using a range of light and fluorescence microscopy methods. She then moved to Oxford Brookes University to carry out her PhD research on the role of fungal extracellular matrices in the Vicia faba-Botrytis plant host-pathogen interaction that involved light and electron microscope studies. In 1996, she came to Sydney to take up a postdoctoral position studying the role of pleiomorphic vacuoles of the filamentous fungus Pisolithus tinctorius in long distance transport, again using a variety of light, fluorescence and electron microscope methods. Five years later she transferred to The University of Sydney to carry out postdoctoral and imaging research on plasmodesmata and cell-cell communication in plants. During 2004-6, she was employed as the Light and Laser Optics Manager for the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis at the University of Sydney and from 2006-2017 she managed and led the Advanced Microscopy Facility at the Bosch Institute, School of Medical Sciences at The University of Sydney. A/Prof. Cole started at UTS in Feb 2018 as an Associate Professor and Director of the Microbial Imaging Facility. She was the President of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society from June 2022-July 2025 inclusive and has a genuine passion for facilitating research as well as teaching the next generation of microscopists.

She is an expert in a wide-range of imaging modalities including transmitted light, fluorescence, laser microdissection, optical tweezers, confocal and multiphoton, light-sheet, super-resolution, transmission electron and cryo-electron microscopy. In addition, she has extensive experience in specimen preparation of plants, animals and microbes for both light and electron microscopy.