Our fantastic scholar Skylar wed her other half, Alex last weekend. I had to be in the mountains to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, so I had to miss this one (heartbroken, though the anniversary party was great, too!). We love the bonus of getting these fancy photos of our grad scholar team (plus this time with an alum, Taylor)!
February lab news
We had a good month with an emphasis on service in the R-G lab in February. We participated in the first ever Education Day hosted by Athens’ own Rock Lobsters. Clawdius, the team mascot, got in on some of our planarian work (invertebrate allies, I guess?). We also visited Gaines Elementary for their STEM night. Thanks to Macey, Christina, Jazmine, and Skylar for their time! I also spent a Saturday at a regional middle school Science Olympiad competition as a volunteer (those are always fun!). We also kicked off a new semester of Dev Talks, our supergroup meeting with the Developmental Biology Alliance at UGA. Ella Cho (undergrad student) and Kendall Clay presented the work of several undergrads in trying to identify synapse proteins in planarians, and I was really proud of Ella’s ability to present in this venue, which usually features grad student and postdoc presenters!
Our classes (teaching, TAing, and as students) are going well and we have lots of fun science happening, too!
We love our UGA Entomology colleagues - great scientists with such a sense of humor!
Science communication event at the Rock Lobsters Education Day, which included 3400 students in local schools. Thanks for the assist, Clawdius!
Ella and Kendall presented our undergraduate team’s progress on understanding planarian synapse biology at a recent Dev Talks Supergroup meeting.
Christina, Jazmine, and I spent a fun evening at the Gaines Elementary STEM night. We love visiting CCSD elementary schools and this was a new one for us, so grateful to be included!
Congratulations Taylor!
Recent lab alum Taylor Medlock Lanier was just selected for a 2026 Excellence in Research by Graduate Students Award from the UGA Graduate School. This is a huge honor, only received by 5-6 graduate students at UGA across all disciplines each year. We are so proud of you, Taylor!
Congratulations Dr. Medlock Lanier!
A fun grid of pictures from Taylor’s Defense (10/31) and Graduation this month! We had such a fun time celebrating her many accomplishments, contributions, and victories as a Ph.D. student at UGA. It’s hard to let students leave (for me at least) but it will be so fun to watch what you do next, Taylor! :)
Woohoo Undergrad Research Team!
We had really fantastic end-of-semester presentations by our undergrad researchers, Zoe, Kathleen, and Ella. Grateful to Taylor, Skylar, and Christina for their excellent mentorship and support of these exceptional junior members of our team. Can’t wait to see what they do next with their projects!
