An old and a new Dr. rer. nat., and a farewell but not far

Today, Sruthi Sreekumar became Dr. Sruthi Sreekumar. Even her parents came all the way from their home in Kerala, India, to attend the convocation in which she received the doctoral certificate, and the doctoral hat the whole group had prepared for her. In the evening she, Dr. Tobias Weikert - our last new Dr. - and Claudia Lüneberg - our former Research Technician - invited all of us for a barbecue in the Innenhof of the institute. Even Eva, Tobi’s wife, with their little three-week-old Lilith, came. And both Sruthi and Tobi were baptized in the IBBP pool - so that their Dr. titles really count! Tobi is now working with Rebecca to support her in building their start-up Bex-Biotech. Through their EXIST grant, they are still members of our group. And so is Sruthi who will stay with us until the end of the year, to support us in getting our new nanoControl project off the ground. And finally, Claudia who has so unfailingly run our largest lab and supported our projects and helped so many undergraduate and graduate students as well as doctoral researchers on their way to their degrees over the past few years, Claudia has left us a month ago to continue on a permanent position in Prof. Michael Hippler’s group. This is unfortunate for us as we cannot offer a permanent position, but we are happy for her. All the best in your new position, Claudia!