Semester Wrapped: Defenses, Departures, and a Lot of Blessings 🧫✨

Hello ladies, gentlemen and researchers!

BREAKING NEWS (again, we know, we're just built different this year): the lab has had a HECTIC few months and it's time for a proper catch-up. Grab a coffee, this one's a long one.

First things first! The dreaded defense happened, and I lived to tell the tale. If you remember our last post, Yi-Hua, Chih-Yun, and I walked across the stage at the Institute of Biotechnology Graduation Ceremony back in May, with one final boss battle looming: the thesis defense. Well. I'm thrilled (and mildly still in disbelief) to report that all three of us absolutely crushed it !! Yaaaaaayyy (*APPLAUSE*)

Yi-Hua said "hold my pipette" and won an award. Before she even graduated, our extremely dilligent and hardworking Yi-Hua took home the oral presentation competition award from the Agricultural Chemistry Society back in June. An absolute powerhouse move and honestly the least surprising great news of the summer. Congratulations again, Yi-Hua! 🏆

We hosted a delegation all the way from Thailand. Our college, Bioresources and Agriculture, welcomed a professors' delegation from SUT (Suranaree University of Technology), Thailand. Great conversations, great energy, and a nice reminder that science really is a small, well-connected world. The seminar circled around biotechnology and how to use AI to our best potential, including how we're currently using it for our own research. Our discussions spanned across agriculture as well as bio-medicine, and the speeches from the professors and research groups were SO inspiring! (Made me think I am not using either my brain or ChatGPT to my full potential.)

The session ended with some goodie bags from the SUT delegation. And yes, I am using those traditional Thai naturopathy foot soaks (thanks for asking)!

Bittersweet goodbyes: Chih-yun and Chun-Chi are off on their next adventure. We said farewell to our beloved colleagues Chih-yun and Chun-Chi, who are heading abroad for their exchange semester — Chih-yun to Shanghai and Chun-Chi to Bordeaux. The lab will not be the same without you two, but we cannot WAIT to hear about all the science (and food) you find out there.

✈️ P.S. Chih-Yun and her peanut plants will be missed!

And of course, new faces walked in right as familiar ones walked out. We welcomed Connie, our new Master's student from Taipei Medical University, who officially joins the Liu Lab this fall. And say hello to Jennifer Chen, our new intern and BFN undergraduate student! The lab door truly never stops swinging. Prof. Liu hosted a lunch to send off our departing friends and welcome our new ones all at once — very on-brand efficient lab logistics, we love to see it.

P.S. I am sorry Yusril, you had to sit this one out! (You can EITHER go on a vacation or attend a yummy lunch-- no multitasking here! ;))

We also celebrated a birthday, because balance is important. Big happy birthday to our Research Assisstant, Tai-Hsing, celebrated in August! Cake, candles, and (we assume) at least one science pun. 🎂

And to close out the summer — a lunch full of peace, music, and blessings. Earlier this August, Prof. Liu, together with our neighbour Prof. Lin, hosted the IOB × Biotechnology Center × Biotech Building Peace Month Fellowship Lunch. We shared hymns, music, and the pastor blessed the staff, faculty, and students, praying for a new semester filled with peace, wisdom, and happiness. A genuinely lovely way to pause before everything picks back up again.

PHEW! So that's our summer: THREE successful defenses, one award-winning presentation, one international delegation, two goodbyes, two hellos, one birthday, and one very peaceful lunch. Honestly? Not bad for a few months.

We are all feeling incredibly excited and blessed heading into the new semester. Here's to whatever comes next — may our experiments work, our data make sense, and our coffee never run out.

Here's to new beginnings (again)!

-By Roy