Austin Hammond embraces teamwork and technology at GIFS to accelerate research

Feb 07, 2025

Austin Hammond brings diverse research experience to the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) — and he’s putting it all to use as the Platform Lead for GIFS’ Omics and Precision Analytics Laboratory (OPAL).

In his role, Hammond oversees one of the largest high-throughput sequencing facilities in Canada — a world-class laboratory that provides genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics services to researchers in the agri-food sector and other fields of discovery.

“The really motivating factor was to be able to contribute to an area of research that had very direct impacts on people’s lives,” said Hammond, MSc, explaining his motivation for joining GIFS in 2022.

At GIFS, Hammond found an opportunity to contribute to a wide range of complex projects while leveraging an exciting complement of technology.

“We have the ability to really work at a huge scale of science,” said Hammond.

“The resources and technologies that we have and use here are really thrilling to be able to leverage and we can move the science that we do faster than any other time I’ve had an opportunity to do so in my career …

“It’s also sometimes a challenge, because the questions that you then need to answer with these strong technologies are that much larger.”

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Video: A Farm Song (Busy) | Parody of A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey

Lyrics:

My days begin with workin’, Alarm’s at 5 o’clock,
I Fill 5 gallon buckets, The feeders and the troughs,
This five to nine ain’t workin’, why the heck do I work so hard?,
I can’t worry ‘bout health problems, I can sleep in when I’m gone,

One, here comes the two to the three to the four,
Tell em’ ‘buy another cow, we need plenty more’,
Blue jeans are gettin’ dirty, what else could I ask for,
Oh my, more chores

Someone pour me up another shot of sweet tea,
They know me and working hard’s got a history,
There’s another flock of sheep that still needs feed,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,

Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,

I’ve been working pretty stressed but,
I ain’t changing for some cash,
Lord knows that I’m very blessed (More chores),
But I gotta say it’s hard,
Workin’ outside gettin’ charred,
Living out here on the farm, (more chores)

One, here comes the two to the three to the four,
Tell em’ ‘buy another cow, we need plenty more’,
Blue jeans are gettin’ dirty, what else could I ask for,
Oh my, more chores

Someone pour me up another shot of sweet tea,
They know me and working hard’s got a history
There’s another 20 chickens that still need feed,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,

Everybody on the farm getting’ busy,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,

Fun, here on ranch that’s what you can’t ignore,
Might be pretty hard but I love it to its core,
Flannel’s gettin’ dirty, what else could I ask for,
Oh my, more chores (Tell ‘em sing with me)

Someone pour me up another shot of sweet tea,
They know me and working hard’s got a history,
There’s another flock of sheep that still needs feed,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,
Someone pour me up another shot of sweet tea,
They know me and working hard’s got a history,
Watching cattle in the dark, don’t miss me,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,
(Yeeeeeehaw)
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,
Everybody on the farm gettin’ busy,
It’s the best bro, go get yourself a farm