Farewell to Naomi

The last week was marked with farewell events to Naomi. 

It started on Tuesday with a trip and picnic. Since Naomi is (was) a joint student of both Hanah Margalit and myself, we had a trip with the two groups.

On the road

Noa and Daniela

After the trip we had a nice lunch in a forest. Daniela was the star of the event, sitting in the middle and checking the choice of food.

Then came the more official part of the ceremony where we said our farewell wishes and exchanged cards and presents :-)

On Thursday afternoon we had the dissertation exam. Unlike the custom in many universities, in the Hebrew University the exam is a private event - the judges and the student without any audience.  Naomi surveyed the results from her dissertation and the judges asked questions.

Naomi at the start of the presentation

After the presentation and Q&A, the judges convened, and after a short discussion decided this was a great presentation and wonderful dissertation. We called Naomi to tell her the news.

Celebratory fresh PhD

Yesterday Hanah and I took Naomi for a lunch to have a chance for a more intimiate farewell. 

Today Naomi came to finish the TODO list on an ongoing project with Avital and Mor (from Hanah's lab). And at 3:30, she left, after tearful hugs with everyone. 

We wish Naomi easy move to Cambridge, MA, and much fun and success in her postdoctoral fellowship!

Party: One Farewell + Two Welcome

Recently it seems that we have many farewell party. Another one today, to celebrate Noa's graduation and to say farewell on her departure to the Weizmann Institute. At the same time we also welcomed two new additions to the extended lab family: Oren and Daniela who born recently.

We had a nice picnic in a park near Jerusalem, and enjoyed the presence of current and recent lab members and the many young children of the next generation. As noted by few participants, the lab has been extremely productive on that front...

Lab Party!

The holidays are over, and everyone gathered back from the four corners of the earth they dispersed to. To celebrate the start of a new year we had a party. The theme was Italian Food.

Ariel made fresh fettuccine in three colors.

Moran, who just returned from Italy, made pizza dough and baked a series of fresh pizza on the premises. One problem is that by the time the pizza tray left the kitchen it was mostly empty, as the smell of the pizza coming out of the oven lured people to come and "taste" the creation.

We set up a WII station in the yard, and although the screen was far from perfect (a tablecloth) we did see some heated action.

The less happy part of the event was to say goodbye to few people. Ruty and Aharon who are finishing their M.Sc. and continuing to other things, and Ohad and Julia who finished their B.Sc. project with us. 

The dessert table was exciting and managed to cheer everyone up. 

We had a surprise appearance by Matan, a lab alumni, who showed his powers and cradled babies. 

And we ended the evening with an optimistic smile.