Paul South obtained his Ph.D in biochemistry at Purdue University studying epigenetic regulation of gene expression. From 2013- 2019 Paul was a member of the Photosynthetic Research Unit of the United States Department of Agriculture- Agriculture Research Service in Urbana Illinois. In that time Paul took a synthetic biology approach to increasing photosynthetic efficiency by designing and installing alternative photorespiration metabolism in model and crop plants. Paul is currently an assistant professor of plant physiology at Louisiana State University where his lab group is interested in understanding the regulation of photorespiration and how to use that knowledge along with rapidly developing synthetic biology tools to increase crop productivity.