Emma Carrick successfully defended her thesis on the 7th January with Peter Roepstorff from the University of Southern Denmark and Dimitris Xirodimas as her examiners. Peter is semi-retired and is really the godfather of proteomics in Europe, having spent over 40 years using mass spectrometry to analyse proteins and peptides. Peter also gave a fantastic overview of his quest to find new fluorescent proteins from coral reefs, in an MRCPPU seminar held on the same day. Dimitris is from the GRE division and his work is focussed on the role of the small ubiquiitn like modifier NEDD8. Emma is now working at the Paterson Institute in Manchester with Tony Whetton.