A lab that runs together, stays together

Left to right: Dr. Ben Woolston, Jess Woolston (the superior sibling), William Gasparrini (Ben’s grad student), Dr. Ryan Koppes, Cheese the husky

August 18th, 2024
Members of the Koppes and Woolston labs participated in this year’s Boston Olympic Triathlon together! Participants included both Woolston siblings, their creator (papa Woolston), Kat Nilov (not pictured), Ryan Koppes, and William Gasparrini. As this author was not present during the race, there’s no saying how things went down, but I’d like to imagine they formed a cute little running group and just spilled the tea the whole way through.

Holiday cookie decorating- Part 2: Santa’s Revenge

        Picture on the left: Generic people watching a movie
Picture on the right: top row, left to right: Dr. Ryan Allen Koppes, Kyla Kaiser, Jess Woolston, Dr. Abigail Nelson Koppes, Katelyn Neuman; bottom row, left to right: Selina Banerjee, Bill Doherty, Bryan Schellberg, Ziwen Wang, Nolan Burson, Brent Buchinger

December 7th, 2023
The gang stayed in the Mugar SPARK Office conference room this year for some cozy holiday fun. They put on “Elf” (streamed legally of course), grabbed some frosting, and got decorating cookies. Not only did this event give the perfect excuse to eat some sugar, but it also provided the perfect opportunity for everyone to wear their new matching lab sweaters (whose purchase and distribution were the courtesy of Kyla’s efforts and Koppes funding). It was truly a magical evening.

The Gang Goes to Vermont

March 17th-19th, 2023
The gang headed up to Peru, Vermont this year for a nice little research talk-filled getaway. Initially planning to stay at a Vrbo in Londonderry, VT, the owner had to quickly relocate the group in response to a septic tank explosion. Everyone arrived at the new lodge on Friday, where beds were claimed, dinner was eaten, and the first round of student led science talks were given. The following morning, the second set of students presented over breakfast after which Katelyn Neuman (from LNNR) and Patrick Sanford (from Woolston lab) were awarded “best presentations”. During the day on Saturday, the more athletic bunch went skiing while the cool kids made their way to the pinball arcade. Both nights were filled with socializing and merriment as students shared stories and a subset tried naming a movie Ryan Koppes hadn’t seen yet. Overall, it was a lovely weekend with a lovely group of people.

Holiday cookie decorating!

December 14th, 2022
The gang headed to the Koppes household mid-December for cookie decorating and an overdue housewarming party! After Brent was declared the cookie decorating winner (based on number of Slack emoji votes), the group headed to the basement where Bill, Joe, and Dr. Ryan Koppes played some music while everyone else crowded around Clyde the husky to give him some well-deserved pets.

Lab goes on a winter retreat in Vermont

March 29th, 2022
Enjoying a fresh snowfall, the ABNEL and LNNR labs spent the weekend near White River Junction, Vermont. The members split the time playing ultimate spoons, playing in the snow, skiing at Killington, and racing in Mario Kart.

Some members of ABNEL take a photo with a dog!

To remember the good times before we ended up on Zoom for awhile, here’s a photo of some ABNEL people with a dog! Dr. Doggo (self-named) was there for a Northeastern graduate student event just soaking in the attention.

LAB-sgiving Party!

Everyone stuffed into Abby’s apartment and stuffed themselves with food for Labsgiving. While Caroline’s pumpkin pie didn’t quite make the last 100 steps safely into Abby’s apartment (it did make it onto the ground!), the food was great.

Rock Climbing!

After the camping trip to New Hampshire was cancelled due to poor weather, the lab went indoors to go rock climbing! Everyone managed to make it down safely, but with some sore forearms the next day.

Baseball game at Fenway Park! (Sunburn included)

From left to right: Dr. Abby Koppes, Dr. Ryan Koppes, Adam, Jon (LNNR lab), Bill (LNNR lab), Jessica, David, and Tess.

Jessica’s White Sox lost to the Red Sox (woo!) The White Sox were up at first and looked to be winning it before the Red Sox came back and won. As said by one White Sox fan in the stands near us: “[The White Sox] always find a way to disappoint me”.