After many postponements due to the pandemic, Sam has finally left for Brazil to start their Fullbright Scholarship! More on the project here: 
​insideucr.ucr.edu/stories/2019/04/16/fulbright-sends-ucr-soil-scientist-dam-disaster-site

Miranda defended her dissertation! Dr. Mir's is off to start her postdoc at Chapman University! But in Dirty Lab (TM) fashion, Sam couldn't say goodbye without an elaborate show.  Below is the performance that introduced Dr. Aiken's summary of her projects at UCR ft Dr. Michael Schaefer as Mariah Carey (choreographed by none other than the talented WW-- their 14 year old.)

Monica successfully defended her master thesis on her arsenic mapping and modeling project in Coachella Valley . Way to go Monica! 

​Join me in congratulating Danielle who thoroughly passed her qualifying exams today! The committee was extremely impressed w Danielle's work so far and thoughtfulness put into planning out the rest of her dissertation and beyond.

To top it off, Danielle also scored $150,000 with the City of LA who is super excited for her project to move forward on their sites.

Ben and Miranda head to Santa Cruz for some anoxic soil sampling! Way to go team!

Claudia, AKA CALUDIA-- is now Dr. Caludia!  

After a long hiatus and many accomplishments of the lab, a certificate ceremony was held at Casa de Ying-Schaefer to celebrate and the following awards were granted:

• World's Best Postdoc Fellow and Mom. Awarded to Claudia Christina "mama" Escobar Avila. Congrats on getting a postdoc fellowship at a small junior university in NorCal. 
• Certificate of Really Important Recognition. Awarded to Macon "Meghan" Jedediah Abernathy for getting the T32, Liebig Fellowship, and Marsh Fellowship as well as being offered a second interview for a postdoc at SSRL. 
• Certificate of Appreciation. Awarded to Miranda "MIR" Aiken for passing her quals (really greatly) and for writing and getting an HDR grant funded and for being the best pretend Midwest mom. 
• Certificate of Achieving Stuff. Awarded to Danielle Stevenson for getting SO MANY THINGS FUNDED and as a preemptive congrats on passing quals (she did!). 
• Getting Fellowship Award. Awarded to Monica Hope for getting the Liebig Fellowship and doing arsenic stuff as the newest member of the Dirty Lab. 
• Diploma Certificate. Awarded to Phoebe Ly for successfully completing the required 'stuff' to graduate from The Dirty Lab and for being accepted as a SURGE fellow with. a real genius at a small really well funded private school in NorCal really close to Palo Alto, CA. 
• Room Cleaning Assistant. Awarded to baby Maple for her outstanding assistance in cleaning up. 
• NOT AWARDED: Ben because he was away surfing and the award committee was super jealous. Although he did accomplish many things this past year. (He actually did get an award, but we left him a voicemail telling him we shredded it because we were resentful he wasn't at the party, but in reality we gave it to him later and it's now on his desk).