We’re all #MSTPStars!
By: Caleb “labmate of Chris” Ford
This month, I want to highlight the MSTP student whose lab bench is next to mine. We call him Chris Peek. If you talk to him about IL-12 or IL-23, your time will be lost for an hour. If you accidentally drop the word “microbiome,” find a seat because he could take you on a seemingly endless journey through a tortuous tract of progressively drier content filled with uncultured topics. However, this lab nerd is more than just a set of hands holding a pipette or histology slide. He is also an avid player of the most Ultimate of sports. Chris once tried to show me a video on YouTube. He made the mistake of passing by his homepage on the way. His “suggested videos” were as targeted as his Cre-Lox system in mice. Two topics filled the section: Steph Curry (his almost fellow Davidson alum) and video upon video of Ultimate Frisbee highlights. I did not know about this Internet sub-culture until that moment. But his passion became clear, and his intellectual curiosity that drives his Google Scholar dives translated to Ultimate All Too Well. The angle of the disk, the wind speed, its direction, the position of the “handler,” the cutting of the players — all of it was precise and calculated. The details were too complicated for my ears to re-iterate to this day, but his enthusiasm on the topic was unforgettable. If it is a strong headwind, the frisbee angle shifts up with a front tilt. If there is a crosswind, another tilt. The wrist drop on the “flick” versus the “hammer” will guide the distance. I write to let you all know that Chris is not just a lab nerd but an Ultimate nerd. If there are any MSTP folk interested in learning about this sport or playing pickup games, Chris is your man.
Chris lays out for a catch to keep the play alive in the Finals of the Indy Invite, a regional Ultimate tournament.
The Trash Pandas at the end of the Indy Invite, in which they finished as runners up.
With flawless form and a carefree expression, Chris releases the disc into the atmosphere of energy we call air.
Matt Stier (M4) and Rachel Brown (G2) spent an epic 2 weeks contracting as many viruses as possible and spent two nights in the ED, one for Matt passing a kidney stone (thanks, Dilaudid!!!).