After 27 years, my path in academia is coming to an end. On July 1st I will be retiring from my Professorship at the University of Ottawa. What comes next? Plenty, but those are posts for later. A thread 🧵(1/8)

Looking forward to this event. Always fun speaking at the alma mater 🧑‍🎓🤓

Need more reasons to attend #ToBE2024? We’re very honoured to introduce Dr. Andrew Pelling (@pellinglab) as one of our keynote speakers! Register with the link in our bio to secure your spot now! @bme_uoft @UofTEngineering @UofT @MilosRPopovic

I’ll remember this time of my life fondly. Thank you all. (8/8)

People trained in the lab: 83 Fellowships and Awards: 46 Publications and Patents: 67 Companies co-founded: 6 Invited and keynote talks: 138 Countries visited for science: 23 Bioart installations: 14 TED Talks: 2 Underwear commercials (AKA the pinnacle of my career): 1 (7/8)

And we even managed to accomplish a few useful things! I owe so much to everyone who joined the lab during all of its manifestations. So, here’s an entirely insufficient summary of the past 16 years: (6/8)

But this didn’t happen because of all the incredibly talented students, researchers, collaborators and co-conspirators who took a chance working with me. We had a lot of fun and worked on some wild projects (most of which have never seen the light of day). (5/8)

I founded the Pelling Lab in 2008. In all honesty, I didn’t think it would last. I was sure I had five years before I would be denied tenure, get fired and have to find a real job. (4/8)

And a few of those people (you know exactly who you are) didn’t hold back from pushing me over the edge! (3/8)

I made this decision a little over a year ago and there are many, many reasons for it. But most importantly, it’s the right time and it’s definitely the right call. I’m extremely fortunate to have good friends and mentors who supported me as I was contemplating this change. (2/8)

Congrats Elaine 😀

Yes! #CoffeeWithChris achievement unlocked! Was great to catch up Chris. Hope I can race you next year 😂

After 15+ years of hoarding old electronic junk “I might need one day” it has become necessary to purge. I just know that tomorrow I’m going to need something 😭 To all the other cheapskate hoarder scientists out there … I’m Sorry. I’ll do better next time.

Scenes from another fascinating weekend hanging out at X for #SciFoo 2023. Thank you @digitalsci @Google @OReillyMedia for the invite. Great to be back this year in person 🤓

Getting in a run today around Google land. Back in town to visit Google X for the weekend and hangout with all the other nerds at #scifoo 🤓

Had a great time with the whole group at the @CanBiomatSoc annual meeting in #Halifax 🤓. We did it all! The team brought posters, gave talks, wore ball gowns and even chaired a session #biomaterials #bioengineering #plantbased #lablife

Its TODAY!!! We are having the #Biomaking guide launch party @ 3:15. Special thanks to @pellinglab and @CorinneTakara for their contributions. Please retweet and join us!

Another thing we’re thankful for this year? Asparagus. Not just because it's delicious, but because biophysicist @pellinglab figured out how to turn asparagus into HUMAN cells!

Tomorrows finish line. Weather looking like it’s going to be a hot sufferfest 🥵. Still going to be fun, NYC knows how to put on a marathon 🤩 #TCSNYCMarathon

Can’t wait! Second time running the #TCSNYCMarathon. Getting there in style this year 😄🚁🏃‍♂️. For more marathon stuff head on over to the Insta 😉 https://t.co/KMlJSGsZNo