Dr Adam J. Carroll
Dr Adam J. Carroll (PhD, Plant Biochemistry) is a multidisciplinary scientist with >20 years of experience in academic research and teaching and has published >40 scientific papers with over 4500 citations (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2588-7704). Exposure to the profound transformational power of psychedelics as a teenager in the mid-late 1990s - combined with a deep sense of spiritual connectedness with nature (from childhood experiences gardening, bushwalking, mountain biking, surfing and diving) Inspired Adam to study botany, mycology, plant molecular ecophysiology, natural products chemistry, biochemistry / enzymology, pharmacology, molecular biology, genomics, bioinfomatics, cheminformatics, computer programming, web-development, data science, robotics, computer vision and artificial intelligence, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, complex systems science, systems biology (integrative multi-omics), gas- and liquid chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC- and LC-MS), ecology and evolutionary biology as a means to the following ends:
1) psychologically integrating (through advanced scientific understanding) his own psychedelic experiences; 2) enabling and promoting safer and more informative ethnobotanical research and experimentation through analytical chemistry (drug discovery and drug checking); 3) (current major focus) enhancing our global capacity to replace unsustainable wild-harvesting and toxic waste-producing traditional chemical synthetic methods with enzyme discovery, enzyme engineering, genetic / metabolic pathway engineering and ultimately, industrially-relevant access to vast new regions of previously-inaccessible chemical structural space through legal, clean, green, safe and sustainable bio-production of medical grade (GMP-certified) psychedelics and their biosynthetic precursors/intermediates in engineered biochemical systems.
Socially / politically, Adam is deeply passionate about the future of education and research, grassroots cooperativism, peer-to-peer communication / collaboration, public knowledge sharing, open-source technologies (hardware, software and intellectual property) and cosmolocalism as critical ingredients for social justice, global peace and a sustainable, happy and healthy future for human consciousness in which universal global access to all human rights (as defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights) is no longer an aspiration but an everyday reality that essentially all people can safely take for granted.
Artistically / creatively, Adam’s primary medium is experimental electronic music / sound design (combining electronic and acoustic elements) with a strong interest in the creative synaesthetic integration of computer graphics, virtual and augmented realities (VR/AR) and other interactive digital elements. He enjoys collaborating and jamming with computers, drum machines, synthesisers, home-made experimental electronic devices, people, plants and fungi.
