Category Archives: Group Foolishness

In what was a fast-paced day of science and celebration, both Kim Clarke and Shalini Saxena defended their dissertations last Monday. Kim’s talk (The Fabrication and Study of Stimuli-Responsive Microgel-Based Modular Assemblies) focused on controlling the properties of responsive thin films composed of microgels by spatially separating the assembly-controlling functionalities from the responsive elements viaContinue reading “congrats to 2 more grads”

This is a little late, but it is still definitely worth a post!  Last Tuesday, Mark Spears successfully defended his dissertation, entitled “Microgel-Based Coatings and their Use as Self-Healing, Dynamic Substrates for Bioapplications”.  With a body of research spanning from non-fouling coatings to self-healing materials, Mark has done a ton of work in some veryContinue reading “congrats to Mark!”

Today we witnessed an outstanding presentation by Emily Herman on the topic of microgel/polyelectrolyte interactions as the final step in her path to a Ph.D.  Of course, she defended her dissertation successfully, so we now get to call her Dr. Herman, which for some reason sounds like a ’70’s TV hospital drama to me.  We celebratedContinue reading “congrats to Emily!”

Last week the group came over to enjoy some food, drink, and merriment one last time.  Check out the details after the jump…

In what might be the final Lyon Group dinner ever (wow), we ventured out to Mellow Mushroom to wish Bob good luck in his next position.  He is off to UNC-Chapel Hill to work with Sergei Sheiko on TBDA (To Be Determined Awesomeness).  We are all sad to see Bob leave so soon after hisContinue reading “good luck to Bob!”

This week Xiaobo (Bob) Hu returned to the group, this time as a postdoctoral scholar.  Bob previously spent two years in the group as part of a Ph.D. exchange with his home institution (South China University of Technology). Now, after spending some time working in industry, he is back in the states to work onContinue reading “welcome back, Bob”

Today we learned that Nicole Welsch has been awarded a 2-year fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG).  Her proposed work, “Engineering of fibrin-specific biocompatible microgels for the use as hemostatic agents”, will help us to continue our growth in the area of extracellular-matrix derived materials. Congrats!

When it rains, it pours – another group member is moving on.  Yesterday saw Grant Hendrickson give an outstanding presentation of a small slice of his research on the occasion of his Ph.D. defense.  During his time in the group, Grant worked on an incredible array of topics, including microlenses, emulsions (Pickering and traditional), resistiveContinue reading “congrats to Grant!”

Last month, Jeff Gaulding successfully (and brilliantly) defended his dissertation. His talk was an outstanding tour through the different synthetic approaches he has taken in order to increase the versatility and functionality of hydrogel microparticles. With today being his last day at GT, we all wish him luck as he moves on to greener pastures.Continue reading “congrats to Jeff!”

This coming Friday is Alicia’s last day with the group. We have been very fortunate to work with her – she brought a fantastic attitude to a job that probably got a bit frustrating at times. Hopefully we made her job a bit easier by being a generally friendly and low-maintenance group! Soon she willContinue reading “good luck to Alicia!”

This is a bit overdue, but better late than never.  Congratulations to Dr. Mike Smith, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation a few weeks back.  Mike is off to bigger and better things with Merck.  Good luck!

The group recently went to a Japanese pub, Shoya Izayaka to celebrate Hiro’s fellowship, and to get some decent food.  Here are some pix from the event.

Hiro has been awarded a JSPS Postdoctral Fellowship for Research Abroad.  This is  a two year fellowship that will allow him to greatly expand on his work using microgels in bioengineering applications.  Congrats!