[1] McCulloch started at the University of Southern California in 1924 where the marine biology research department lacked funding and resources.
[5] When McCulloch first arrived at USC, the marine biology research department only had one skiff, one lab, and one lecture room.
[1] George Allan Hancock, an oil baron, had an interest in marine research despite lacking his own formal training.
[8] She published 5 works with Cushman, multiple of them cataloguing microbes in the Hancock Collection[9] Although she retired from teaching in 1953, McCulloch continued her research late into her life.
The Irene McCulloch Foundation continued publishing a monograph series after her death, which catalogued even more marine microbes.