Prof. O’Connor has uniquely developed and patented technology for converting plastic waste into a bio-degradable plastic. He has filed five patents relating to biopolymer production and product development. Prof. O’Connor has a strong background in technology development for PHA-production, molecular investigations of PHA-production as well as protein engineering (random and site directed) for biocatalyst development and fundamental understanding of enzyme activity. He has published over 70 international scientific papers. He is the Chair of the scientific committee for the Biobased industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) and a member of the EC expert group for biobased products. He is a member of the editorial board of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.