Garret William O’Connell Ph.D. student 
Sulfonate degradation is what gets me up in the morning and sulfonate transport keeps me going. I am the Uber Eats for sulfonate metabolism in our Pseudomonas putida (p.s. they can be fluorinated!).
About Me
My story prior to joining the SEM group is one of Canadian cross-country travel. Native to the Canadian province of New-Brunswick, I attended the University of New Brunswick where I studied Biology and Chemistry. Pursuant to science, I travel across the country to British-Columbia to do a Master of Science in Environmental Sciences at Thompson Rivers University. While doing my Masters, I was also the recipient of the Mitacs Globalink Research award which allowed me to spend four months working at the CISC’s Estacion Experimental del Zaidin, in Granada, Spain. I was introduced to the prestigious Copenhagen Bioscience Ph.D. program through a series of contacts from Europe—I was obviously thrilled to apply and was fortunate to be part of the 2020 intake for the program! The bulk of my background is in polyfluorinated compound biodegradation and their uptake in bacteria.