Gail McConnell FRSE FInstP FRMS (born 25 August 1976[2][3]) is a Scottish physicist who is Professor of Physics and director of the Centre for Biophotonics at the University of Strathclyde.

[10] Gurney encouraged McConnell to apply for fellowships, and she was a Royal Society of Edinburgh and Research Councils UK (RCUK) postdoctoral fellow.

[12][13] She attended the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Practical Course in Advanced Optical Microscopy in Plymouth, which she has continued to support throughout her academic career.

[10] McConnell directs the Centre for Biophotonics and Mesolens laboratory at the University of Strathclyde,[14] working on nonlinear and linear optical instrumentation for biomedical imaging.

[15] Nonlinear optics allows physicists precise control of excitation parameters, including the chance to tune the duration of laser pules.

[20] Mesolens became a University spin-off, but McConnell decided to stay in academia to explore the physics of biomedical processes.