estelle o'connor;
Name: Dr. Estelle "Tell" O'Connor

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Age: 33

Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA

Rank: Civilian (C2)

Branch: Civilian (USAF)

Position: Astrophysicist

Appearance: At 5'3", Tell is dwarfed by most of her colleagues. Slim and agile. Her animated features are framed by dark brown hair that appears somewhat reddish in hue under strong light, cut short so that it barely brushes her shoulders.

Personality: Stargate Command Psychological Evaluation:

Animated and highly talkative, Tell O'Connor seems to be on a perpetual caffeine buzz. With a dry sense of humour and an infamous love of trivia and minutiae which she regularly imposes on those around her, she makes a lively conversationalist, though at times she appears to have trouble knowing when to let off on something. This is probably to some extent due to an insatiable curiosity that does not always do her credit.

However, this same curiosity and thirst for knowledge manifest quite positively in her work, for which she clearly has a great passion. ("My dream job," In her own words, "I'd be pinching myself if I wasn't too scared of waking up.") She admits cheerfully to being an utter workaholic with "little to no personal life. Sometimes I forget where my house is. But hey, no problem of that happening any more, huh?"

Given Tell's vibrant nature, it may be easy to overlook those qualities that manifest in her more subtlely: a strongly idealistic core, a powerful sense of loyalty... and any insecurities, as well.

All in all, Dr. O'Connor is a highly approachable and upbeat character; I believe she will be a valuable asset to the Atlantis mission.

- Dr. McKenzie, SGC base psychologist

Bio: Born April 21, 1971 in New York, the youngest child and the only girl in a family of five children. Estelle, or Tell as she has come to be known, experienced a fairly regular early life, with all the usual ups and downs of childhood. From a young age, she was an inquisitive child, forever asking questions - her favourite word was "why". Luckily for Tell, she also had the fortune of a very patient dad who would happily address her every question; as a result, not only did she grow up with the impression that her father must know everything (it wasn't until later in life that she realised he, in fact, tended to compensate for his lack of knowledge in certain areas by making answers up) but she also became further encourage to ask more questions. She's never really stopped.

In high school, she was one of those kids with the tendency of being everywhere at once. Always involved, that was Tell; diving into everything from debating club to sports and somehow always managing to keep the ball in the air. Initially setting her sights on a career in journalism, her subject selection for her final year of schooling consisted accordingly almost entirely of humanities subjects - only taking Math and Physics to fill her quota of science classes. She had always sailed through science-based subjects with relative ease, but had never paid particular attention to them until this last year, when she was surprised to find herself enjoying Physics more than any of her other classes - so much so that she ended up trading in one of her classes for another science subject. Politics, history and literature - all have remained great loves with Tell, but she has found more and more that where these offer contradictions, discrepancies, a thousand different perspectives - science can give her the truth.

After graduating high school, Estelle studied physics in college, eventually working up to a Master's degree in Earth and Space Sciences and a PhD in Astrophysics. She was snapped up by NASA and worked for them for a number of years before in 2000 she was contacted by Stargate Command with a very interesting job offer indeed. Tell worked at the SGC's Colorado base for three years, becoming an expert in Stargate and other alien technology. She was later transferred to the Atlantis outpost, and when the means of reaching the Lost City were uncovered she eagerly signed up for the expedition.

In Atlantis, she has already proven herself a valuable asset, her inquisitive and analytical mind quickly showing its worth in her work around the city, which quickly led to her assignment to a field team, designated Bravo. She quickly became friendly with the ever-affable Flight Lieutenant Adam Donovan (she now often describes him as "like a big brother who's younger than me"), while clashing mildly from time to time with her CO, Stackhouse - usually due to her incessant chatter.

ATA Gene: Via gene therapy