Austin Hammond brings diverse research experience to the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) — and he’s putting it all to use as the Platform Lead for GIFS’ Omics and Precision Analytics Laboratory (OPAL).
In his role, Hammond oversees one of the largest high-throughput sequencing facilities in Canada — a world-class laboratory that provides genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics services to researchers in the agri-food sector and other fields of discovery.
“The really motivating factor was to be able to contribute to an area of research that had very direct impacts on people’s lives,” said Hammond, MSc, explaining his motivation for joining GIFS in 2022.
At GIFS, Hammond found an opportunity to contribute to a wide range of complex projects while leveraging an exciting complement of technology.