Congrats Dr. Koster!

Carney Lab has graduated our very first PhD student - we are very proud of DR! Hanna Koster for this awesome achievement.

In her time in the group, Hanna measured out thousands (maybe millions) of Raman spectra of clinical samples and published her work in several high impact journals. As the lab's first student, she helped build and implement the entire lab infrastructure, served as de facto lab manager, safety manager, head of the party planning committee, door decorator extraordinaire, BESA president, and wore numerous other hats.

After polling the group, what we loved most about Hanna was her ability to always make us laugh, keep everyone as a tight social unit (even throughout the pandemic), and her warm, inviting spirit. Having now lost a lab member who owns up to (and possible more than) 50 holiday sweaters, it's hard to imagine how lab will ever be as festive.

Hanna was quickly hired as a Business Development Manager at Champions Onocology. We asked Hanna what skills she picked up during her PhD that would help her in this new role, to which she replied "critical thinking, innovation, organization, forming professional relationships, finding resources, reading and understanding science quickly, literally everything." We can't wait to hear about Hanna's future successes and are excited for the people at Champions to get to know someone we already love.

Congrats Dr. Koster!