Farewell, Hemangi!

On Sunday, Barak hosted a farewell brunch for our senior graduate student, Hemangi Chaudhari. Beyond her contributions to the scientific community, Hemangi has provided wisdom and guidance to our lab for several years now. To the younger graduates, she provided patient instruction. To her classmates, she provided unbeatable cuisine and loyal companionship. And to post-docs and PIs, she provided an intellectual debate over the implications of a result or the design of an experiment.

As Hemangi moves to Boston, we wish her the warmest farewell. As she leaves behind her pipettes (to be scrounged after by incoming students) she leaves a lasting mark on both the lab and the scientific trajectories of those that were lucky enough to spend time with her in St. Louis. We all hope to cross paths again soon, as we crisscross through scientific communities all pointed towards a greater understanding of biology. While the farewells may be blue, the difficulty in parting demonstrates how strong the connections developed to be.

Farewell, Hemangi! We’ll see you again soon!

Image: Masala dosa – featured at the farewell brunch – every bite cherished (source: NY Times).

Qualifying Exam Successes

Congratulations to Clarice Hong (Molecular Genetics and Genomics) and Siqi Zhao (Computational and Systems Biology) on passing their Qualifying Exams!!! They have their wagons hitched to a star and we can’t wait to see where their scientific adventures travel next.

Hemangi’s Thesis Defense

Our intrepid landing pad explorer has successfully defended her thesis, titled “Integration of local and regional regulatory information in the human genome”!!!

Afterwards, we toasted champagne and had delicious Himalayan Yeti as we recounted Hemangi’s many wonderful accomplishments.

Mike White promoted to Assistant Professor

We are pleased to announce the Mike White PhD has been promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor of Genetics. This is well deserved. It is expected that Mike will continue his own research with the added distractions of worrying about grants, sitting on useless committees, and teaching classes to recalcitrant graduate students.