Somehow, time has flown by, and the first two students from the Caesar lab have graduated!! I am so incredibly proud of Lexie Lee and Ashley Clements, class of 2024 for finishing here at JMU and starting the next chapter of their lives!
Ashley is off to Vanderbilt to pursue a graduate degree in Chemistry!! She hopes to continue doing natural products research and become a professor after she is done. (What can I say, it's a pretty great job.) Lexie is taking a gap year before her dental school adventures begin. If I'm lucky, I'll get to see her around campus and even have her as a lab tech for a bit in the next year.
I am so grateful that we have such an amazing and supportive lab group--during finals week, all nine of my amazing students carved out time for a special send-off lunch for Ashley and Lexie. It was a great time to get to know each other better and spend some time outside the lab.
The Caesar Lab Lunch at Island Wing Company and Grill. Pictured (left to right) are Frances Homan, Mary Sessoms, Lyn Haugh, Shyleigh Good, Lexie Lee, Lindsay Caesar, Frank Muscarella, Elijah Fernands, Bethany Droubay, and Ashley Clements!
(Frances, Mary, and Bethany are the newest members of the Caesar lab--we never got an official lab photo of this group, so this will have to be it!)
Having Lexie and Ashley graduate is incredibly bittersweet--I remember getting my first email from the two of them while I was still a post-doc at JMU. They were the first official members of the Caesar lab, the ones who helped build the first instruments in the lab (and give them names--we have found this helps instruments behave better), and the first two students on a Caesar lab publication (hopefully we will have a new post about that in the next few weeks!). Lab will be weird without them, but they have forever left their mark on our little lab space.
The Beginnings of the Caesar Lab Family Tree! Can't wait to watch this grow.
Graduation was... a lot. I held in my tears until that day but then I couldn't hold them back anymore. So so proud of you Lexie and Ashley!! I miss you already! Thanks for taking a chance on me and helping Caesar lab get off the ground. This is just the beginning.
Graduation day!! Beyond proud of these girls. <3 Can't wait to see what you do next!
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