About

Prof P.L.H. McSweeney PhD DSc MRIA is a leading dairy chemist and cheese scientist holding a Personal Chair in Food Chemistry in University College Cork, Ireland, where is also currently the university’s Vice-President for Learning and Teaching. 

He has taught and researched dairy chemistry and cheese science for over 35 years.

The major thread running through his research is dairy enzymology and his research themes have included:

• The use of novel coagulants in cheese manufacture and the role of the coagulant in ripening;
• Study of proteolytic enzymes from lactic acid bacteria;
• Investigation of some of the many indigenous enzymes in milk;
• Acceleration and control the expensive process of cheese ripening;
• Novel aspects of proteolysis and lipolysis in cheese and including the many thousands of peptides that develop during ripening and the role of various enzymes in their production ;
• The equilibrium between casein-bound and soluble calcium on changes to cheese texture and functionality during ripening; 
• The role of the adventitious non-starter microbiota on cheese quality;
• Studies on lactose and protein standardisation of milk and their effects on the resulting cheese; 
• Investigation of traditional varieties that are often important locally and are of unique scientific interest.

He was awarded a PhD from the National University of Ireland in 1993 for a thesis entitled Primary Proteolysis of Caseins in Cheddar Cheese based on research conducted in University College Cork under the supervision of the late P.F. Fox and in the University of Wisconsin-Madison supervised by the late N.F. Olson.  Paul was awarded the Marschall Danisco International Dairy Science Award of the American Dairy Science Association in 2004, a higher doctorate (DSc) on published work by the National University of Ireland (2009) and in 2025 was elected to the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honour.

Books and Papers

Graduate-level short courses in dairy chemistry and cheese science and industry consultancy

I am available to deliver in-person graduate-level short courses in dairy chemistry and cheese science (typically two days) for PhD students and academics, researchers and industry personnel.  I have delivered such courses previously in Italy, Argentina, Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, South Africa and the USA.  Courses are delivered in universities usually arranged directly while those for industry are facilitated through UCC’s Food Industry Training Unit.

A major way I keep abreast of the challenges facing the cheese industry is through helping cheesemakers solve problems.  I am always interested to hear from industry personnel and enjoy helping them work through problems informally by email, or more formally through structured industry consultancy.

Dairy Chemistry

The basis of dairy science is a thorough understanding of the chemistry of milk.  My 1-2 day short course on dairy chemistry has the objective of exploring milk as a highly complex biological fluid and covers topics such as evolution of milk, chemistry of lactose and lactose derivatives, milk lipids and the milk fat globule membrane, chemistry of whey proteins and of the caseins, casein stability, the milk salts system and changes that occur during processing, heat stability of milk and heat-induced changes to milk and the indigenous enzymes that occur in milk and the use of exogenous enzymes in dairy processing.  While focussing throughout on the chemistry of milk rather than on technology, the impact of milk chemistry on practical aspects of dairy technology are touched upon, including drying, thermal processing and cheese manufacture.