In a mixture of good news and bad news, all rolled into one, Dave Gell is making a move down south and moving his laboratory to the University of Tasmania in Hobart. It is bad news for us, because Dave has been an absolute cornerstone of the lab, from the time he first risked everything to come to Australia on a Wellcome Trust fellowship and work for a complete unknown with almost no experience in running a lab (no prized for guessing who). Dave brought with him a vast amount of experience and expertise, a very strong commitment to understanding how things work, and an unassailable thoroughness in everything he did. Over the intervening years, he has become a close friend, a frequent rogaining partner/navigational instructor and a very highly valued colleague. It has been very rewarding seeing him start his own laboratory here in the School, and despite *his* independence I have remained dependent on his knowledge and skills in many areas.
On the other hand, it will be a new start in a new place for Dave and a superb (and challenging) opportunity to establish protein science in Hobart. I think I can safely say that *everyone* will be sad to see him go, but we are behind him all the way in his new venture (and in Lorne fun runs)! Good luck down south Dave – there will always be a spectrometer here you can use!