1. What's your position now and how long have you been in it?
I started AFBI as an SGB2 in the summer of 2007. I have worked in the same lab within GPS for the last 16 years and have recently been promoted to ASO, having been successful through the internal competition process.
2. What has your career and/or academic path looked like, in leading you to your role at AFBI?
I studied beauty therapy after leaving school and worked in this for some time until the salon I was in closed, and took this as an opportunity to go in a completely different direction and try something new. This is when I applied to AFBI as I had always enjoyed science at school, and I was ready for a new challenge. As an SGB2 I was slowly but surely introduced to all aspects of the work carried out in Crop Pathology such as ELISA testing, processing potato tuber samples, water samples for bacterial diseases and it was that familiarity with the work encompassed by Crop Pathology’s remit that allowed me to transition to ASO with ease.
Karina O'Neill
3. What does a typical day look like for you, if such a thing exists?
My day is dependant on the submission of potato tuber samples from DAERA Inspectorate for testing. In order to test for certain bacterial diseases, we would require a minimum of 200 potato tubers, which will provide us with 200 cores weighing just over one tenth of a gram, which we can then process ready for testing. It is also my duty to prepare in advance reagents required in the tests. I also carry out general housekeeping duties to keep the lab clean from contamination.
4. Tell us more about your work and what impact it has (or is expected to have)?
My work is extremely important as it involves screening imported potato tubers for various bacterial pathogens and I follow the EU directive as these are quarantine diseases. The farming of potatoes continues to have importance, economically speaking, and our testing could have an impact on this farming sector. For example, test results may impact on the grading of potatoes and/or the importing and exporting of potatoes. Potatoes in Northern Ireland continue to be of the highest quality and I see my role as playing a small part in helping potato farmers in Northern Ireland maintain the highest quality not only in Europe but throughout the world.
5. What do you enjoy most about your working day?
At the risk of sounding like a cliché, I am a people person. I love when I am able to interact with all the other people I come into contact with in the course of my working day, whether it’s my manager, laboratory colleagues, branch colleagues or DAERA inspectors. On the flip side I do enjoy it when I am busy with a lot of samples, whether they are leaf samples for carrying out my ELISA tests for potato viruses or tuber samples which I have to prepare for PCR testing.
