Sarah O’Connor: ‘There’s nothing that matches that thrill of discovery’
By 
Rebecca Trager2026-08-28T08:00:00
The natural product chemist talks growing up in New York, her dad’s late pursuit of a PhD, and her journey to plant chemistry and to Germany
I grew up in Staten Island, New York, and I went to Stuyvesant High School in the lower East Side of Manhattan, which specialises in science, technology and math. It was a very long commute, two hours each way. I took a train to a ferry, rode the ferry across and then took the subway. But to me it was worth it to see the world beyond Staten Island.