For the pretty much the entire time the Hamill lab has been in existence, Lee “Leeburt” Troughton has been a part of it. If you’ve been on this blog at all, you’ve seen stories about him .
Lee joined my fledgling team as a MRes rotation student and we had a fun time working together. More importantly, I was impressed with his work ethos and ability to pick things up. Therefore, it was no brainer to offer him a chance to stay on with the lab as a PhD student. Lots of cool stuff happened and Lee was part of all of it. He appeared in a brief cameo when we filmed for HGTV, he didn’t quite win at the sports day, there were load of conference presentations, supervising MRes students and UG students, and teaching others in the lab, fundraising for his funders, public outreach activities. Of course, there was a small matter of a PhD too…
levitation, one of Lee’s many skills 
Lee explaining skin protection 
“where did you miss” 
teaching mode activated 
where did the hair go? 
Of course, you don’t just let someone like that go. So, when we were able to secure funding for a postdoc position I was really happy that he was willing to stay on. With each passing year, my reliance on Lee has increased. He has been my go to person for ages now. As well as running multiple projects, he has helped almost everyone in the department and every student that has passed through not only my lab but everyone else’s too. The science has been awesome. Multiple papers out and 3 more in review or revision right now + a slew of legacy manuscripts to follow. Watch this space for updates.
However, good times come to an end.
Student, colleague, friend… collaborator?
Well, not really the end, just the beginning of the next chapter. While it is going to be tough with Lee moving on, I’m genuinely really pleased to see him heading to bigger and better things. He is joining the Oakes Lab at Loyola University Chicago where he’ll learn a host of really cool additional skills and do some amazing science. He will be missed terribly, and I’m not sure yet how we are going to cope (short of hiring 5 people to replace him). The fact he’s moving to a city I love and try to visit every year makes it easier.
Bravo, bon voyage and thanks for everything Leeburt. You will be missed.
LaNts and Laminins 
Congratulations and best wishes from Susan and Brian Hamill.
You will be sorely missed but we look forward to Kevin telling us about your new achievements in Chicago.
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