Kevin O’Connell

Guest Author

Kevin P. O’Connell, Ph.D is currently a Vice President, Technical Staff with B.Next, the division of IQT Labs that aims to strengthen nation’s defense against infectious disease epidemics by demonstrating the power of new and emerging technologies to rapidly detect and quench outbreaks. Since 2007, he has been responsible for sourcing and vetting most of IQT’s investments in the life sciences.

Prior to joining IQT, Dr. O’Connell served as a Research Microbiologist at the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (now the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center). His award-winning research spanned the biodefense technology spectrum from immunoassays and nucleic-acid-based assay design, the molecular biology and genetics of biological threats, simulant technologies, and biomanufacturing strategies. His international experience includes threat reduction work with scientists from the Republic of Georgia, presentations at NATO Advanced Research Workshops, and representing the Center as the Technical Program Officer for the Data Exchange Program between ECBC and its sister laboratory in the French Ministry of Defense. Dr. O’Connell also served as adjunct faculty and lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and School of Nursing.

Dr. O’Connell is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, published abstracts, technical reports, and other publications. He is a co-inventor on eight issued patents. He received his SB in Life Sciences from MIT, and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his work focused on the molecular biology of bacterial-plant interactions. His post-doctoral work at the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology. He received post-doctoral training at the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, and an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.