Dr. Garrett received his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia in Chemistry. As an undergraduate, he worked in the lab of Dr. I. Jonathan Amster on the characterization of bacterial proteins using MALDI-TOF. After a 2 years working in industry to gain experience and technical skills in the scientific industry, he enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Florida, working under the direction of Dr. Richard A. Yost. As a graduate student, he designed the first imaging mass spectrometer based on an ion trap through a partnership with Thermo, and studied the disposition and characterization of phospholipids in brain. He joined the faculty at the University Of Florida in 2006, where he has developed a research program in small molecule quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis for clinical and biological research using mass spectrometry. Dr. Garrett was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2017 in the UF Department of Pathology.