Congratulations Dr. Shan!

The second PhD graduate in two weeks, Dr Shan Zhao has successfully defended her PhD. Shan’s project, the astutely titled “Holistic three-dimensional cellular mapping of mammalian organs by tissue clearing technologies” involved identifying ways to improve the chemical components involved in the tissue clearing process and matching it with the cellular mapping deep-learning processes. You can read all about her work here in this publication in Cell from earlier this year.

Unlike Mihail who had an open virtual seminar, Shan had a small intimate presentation with just the essential personnel. While we weren’t able to join her for her for the defense, we were able to celebrate with social distancing and some Champaign. In traditional German fashion, Shan was given a hand-made graduation cap full of personal memories of her experience here at iTERM. This hat was made by the other PhD students and post-docs here at iTERM and has photos as well as 3D printed models of her key chemical structures that formed the core of her PhD experience.

Shan will be moving on to bigger and better things with a Postdoc position in the lab of Bernd bodenmiller in Zurich starting in 2021. Good luck Shan! We’ll all miss you.

“It is a great experience to work in such an international team”

– Dr. Shan Zhao PhD, 2020.