This summer we said “until next time” to V. Celeste Lanclos, who finished her Ph.D. Celeste started in the lab when we were still at LSU as an undergraduate researcher back in 2015. Thus, she holds the record for the most time in the lab and knows more about our story than anyone (except possibly me). Celeste immediately distinguished herself as a dedicated undergraduate researcher with a flair for microbiology. Prior to moving, she decided to begin graduate school in the lab at LSU, and then when she found out we were going to USC, she was characteristically ALL IN. She did excellent work investigating the biology of the brackish water SAR11 subclade IIIa, which was published this year in The ISME Journal. She isolated the only currently available strain of the CHAB-I-5 Roseobacter clade, and is nearing submission of a paper reporting her investigations on that group as well. Celeste also worked hard on education and published a curriculum for CURE courses focused on microbial physiology with oligotrophs. These were major contributions from her dissertation. But Celeste was also a major contributor as a teammate within the lab, amassing seven co-author publications, and she additionally found time to publish two genome announcements. Celeste was famous for her rainbow jello-shot bundt cake that appeared at various parties, and she generally was a wonderful influence in keeping the lab social and bringing the fun. She is now doing a postdoc at UC Berkeley with John Coates. We miss you Celeste, and can’t wait to see the science coming from the next stages in your career!
