After starting our morning enjoying a scrumptious croissant, coffee, and fresh OJ at Maison Keyser and before we could show ourselves to acquaintances, we both were in dire need of a haircut so we parted ways for the morning. Later we met up looking much neater for a quick slice of pizza before attending Sally’s thesis defense at New York University’s Medical Center at 2:00 pm. We met up with Sally’s fiancé Luis and took our seats along with 45 others to listen to Sally tell her story about microglia and astrocytes releasing glutamate in response to injury and how capillaries in the brain expand instantly in response. I am sure I am not doing justice to her work, so Sally please forgive me if you read this, but this was one of the take home messages of her thesis. We know Sally had been working hard the past six years often six to seven days a week, and it was nice for us to hear her advisor Wen Biao and other faculty, say how impressed they were by her dissertation. We were then told to occupy ourselves from 3-5 pm while she met with her thesis panel, so Luis took us to Trader Joe’s to buy a few items on our grocery list - like ketchup and mayo. We returned to the Skirball Center just before 5 pm greeting the new Dr. Levinson as she emerged from the closed room, and celebrated with about 20 other friends and associates enjoying champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Luis had dinner reservations at River Park for the four of us where they’d personalized the menu for Sally. Dinner was delicious (scallops and Brussel sprouts for me and duck for Harry) then we moved on to a bar up the street where Winchester friends Kim Garlow and Kara Migausky and many other colleagues and friends of Sally’s had gathered to celebrate. It was a great day and evening, concluding close to midnight.
 |
| Sally ready to present |
 |
| Dr. Sally Levinson (and Narwahl) |
No comments:
Post a Comment