'23 BS Environmental Science alumnus from Bolingbrook, IL
Meet Connor O'Loughlin, a 2023 BS Environmental Science Alumnus from Bolingbrook, IL. Connor resides in Houghton, MI where he is a current Graduate Student studying Biological Sciences.
Brief Description of What You Do
Currently, I am a master's student at Michigan Technological University, studying Biological Sciences. I am a research assistant in the Vick-Majors lab at Michigan Tech. The project I currently work on is a multi-institutional effort to collect physical, chemical, and biological data on the Great Lakes during winter. This work is extremely important because data on lakes around the world is lacking due to logistical issues that come with winter sampling. The novelty behind this data set is the synchronous sampling effort between multiple universities in the US and Canada, which provides a snapshot of all the lakes for a given time point. This gives us a comprehensive dataset for a multitude of analytes taken simultaneously, allowing us to draw direct comparisons across all the lakes. This is the first dataset of its kind in the Northern Hemisphere. The types of data I analyze are bacterial production, 16s rRNA, CDOM, DOC, TDN, bacterial cell counts, and flow cytometry.
What at NMU helped you most in your current role?
NMU was a great space to connect with faculty and staff, which I think helped me learn and grow outside of the classroom. I also think the curriculum for my major has vastly increased my competitiveness among my cohort. The mix of biology, chemistry, and geography has given mea broad knowledge base that has allowed me to take part in a variety of projects looking at different systems and using different techniques. The background in GIS has also been very useful as mapping and spatial analysis has become ideal for modelers and for environmental science in general. The faculty in the EEGS department were also amazing and were always willing to offer me guidance and help me get opportunities that I never thought I would have. My fellow students were also great due to their passion and eagerness to learn, which provided an environment conducive to learning and growth.
What advice would you give current students?
If I were to go back and do my undergraduate career all over again, I would have gotten more involved with the department and with clubs that fit my interests. I think it is extremely important to have a connection to your department as an undergraduate, especially at a university the size of Northern. You get many trade-offs from picking a smaller school over a larger school, but it is a boon for a student to come to a school like Northern and get to know the faculty. It is not something that is easily done at a larger school so having access and rapport with your professors is incredibly helpful while you're in school and when you need letters of recommendation for jobs or graduate school. I would also have gotten involved in research much earlier than I did since that can enrich your undergrad experience and show potential employers or graduate schools that you can handle multiple tasks at once.
Are there personal interests and/or activities you care to share?
I enjoy being active espcially since I have come up to the UP. I like to go weightlifting and I am going to try and learn how to ski! Outside of being active, I enjoy playing video games when I get the chance and I like working with my hands (leatherwork, woodwork, etc). I think one unique interest of mine is in axes, I enjoy learning about their history, their use through time, using them myself, and restoring vintage axes back to a usable form.