Hawai'i Day

Since I had just returned from Hawaii, I was allowed to participate this week. That might not have been a good decision...Group Hawaiian Names:

• Mike: Mikaeli Haieki
• Scott: Kakoku Hikekei
• Mary: Mali Lukaka
• Steve: Kewe Kuliaka
  

Rave Day

Monday #2 was "Rave Day" All the glowsticks increased the background on our CE runs...

"Dress-Up Mondays"?

The lab has decided to initiate dress-up Mondays in the lab this summer. Monday #1 became Pirate Day and resulted in a lot of strange looks around the department, especially with Mike's stuffed duck (aka Poo-poo Jubblies) attached to his shoulder...

According to http://gangstaname.com/pirate_name.php, here are the lab Pirate Names:

• Mike Hayes: Cap'n Pete Ropeburn
• Scott Hickey: Almost Crazy Burt Bellomy
• Mary Lucas: Shark-Tooth Nadine
• Steve Suljak: Cap'n Norm Buttwipe (?!)
• Duck: Smugglin' Stu Hawkins

Head to the website and post your own Pirate Name as a comment below!

Alumni Update, July 2008

It's been an exciting year for former group members. Here are the latest reports I've received from group alumni:

• Brian Jameson has joined Ted Holman's research lab at UC Santa Cruz, and is busy elucidating the mechanism of action of the dap 1 protein. The protein is involved in the regulation of cyt p450. His work to date has been mostly focused on expressing and purifying proteins, work which sounds a lot like Chem 143... He recently moved into his brand new (for him) trailer right near the chemistry department, and reports that "I seem to be fitting in far too well in this city, which is more than a bit disconcerting when I look around"! We enjoy getting to see Brian from time to time, since his nearby residence allows him to make occasional visits to the lab.
• Christian Paquet seemed to enjoy his first year in medical school at USC. At last report, he was performing in the top 10% of his class, while still finding time to enjoy life to the fullest in Hollywood (and Sundance, SF, Tahoe, etc.). I've ended up in LA several times in the past year so we've gotten to touch base occasionally, which has been nice. He spent the past four weeks in El Salvador working at the National Hospital with rotations in pediatrics, ob-gyn, general surgery, and internal medicine. Hopefully he'll contribute some comment about his trip soon. Sadly, his trip meant that he missed the long-awaited opportunity to meet Misbah's cousin at the SCU graduation...!
• Terry O'Brien has had a busy year. Besides spending time with his new son, he was admitted into SF State's NIH-MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers) program. The program is designed similarly to our previous REU programs--he's working at SFSU this summer but next summer will likely do an internship through the program at UCSF, UCD, or Stanford. The program also includes a monthly stipend and covers between 60-100% of his tuition! Congratulations!
• Rob Pivec checked in with a rare update in late May. He has finished off year 2 of medical school and is preparing for the national licensing exam. He starts hospital rotations next year and will be at the Lutheran Medical Center in New York City.

Thanks to all of you for keeping us posted with your post-group news!

Graduation 2008

Congratulations to the four Suljak Separations graduates of 2008: Misbah Palla, Nicole Van Groningen, Chappy Huang, and Danny Daugherty! Misbah is still in the Milpitas/Santa Clara area working on medical school applications and is currently looking for full-time employment in the biotech field. Nicole was SCU's valedictorian this year and gave a great speech (in addition, we all learned that in physics, if it's not hard then you're not doing it right...). Nicole is currently doing research in Memphis and is also preparing med school applications. Chappy is back in Taiwan for most of the summer, but is planning to return in September and look for an industry position for the next year or two. Danny is starting Ph.D. work in molecular biology at UC Davis.

Congratulations also to honorary group member Scott Montgomery! Scott is continuing to do research in Dr. Miller's biology laboratory while he applies to med schools.

Congrats!

Welcome

So I've been looking for a better, easier way to provide group/alumni updates than the Facebook page, and this looks relatively easy. You all should feel free to post your own news or updates to this, or you can just send me info and I'll periodically post a compilation from the entire group.