- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's 3:47 p.m., on Sunday, June 4. I am watching a honey bee nectaring on a zinnia in our pollinator garden. She collects, lingers and then leaves.
It was like (A) Apis mellifera to (Z) zinnia. I thought: "A honey bee, Apis mellifera, is leaving a pink zinnia after gathering nectar and pollen for her colony. Everyone must leave what they love to become who they want to be or what they want to become."
So it is with commencements. Molecular geneticist-physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, captured this image at a PhD commencement today and posted it on Twitter: "What do we have here? Congratulations Dr. Cai, Dr. Griebenow, Dr. Lewald and Dr. Tabuloc!"
That would be Yao Cai, Christine Tabuloc and Kyle Lewald of the Chiu lab and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab. Former doctoral students, then doctoral candidates...and now PhDs...
Kyle? Member of the Integrative Genetics and Genomics Graduate Group. Others? Entomology Graduate Group.
Professor Chiu captured it perfectly! What a proud and glorious moment!