Liver-on-a-chip commemorative coin

Once upon a time, I embarked on a very difficult journey. Many years down the road, I earned my PhD, reached higher than I ever thought I would, and then I left.

As I did, I wanted to leave something behind, a memento to share with the people who'd been there and made the journey special. So I made this.

The quote is a translation of an ancient Babylonian saying that means something along the lines of "please calm down". I like to think of it as a spiritual predecessor to the words "Don't Panic" that are written in large, comforting letters on the cover of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Something more of a "hitchhiker's handbook to the hanging gardens", I suppose. Anyway, once I found that quote, it became a go-to saying in what was quite the stressful environment, for myself and the others around me.

The embossed design at the center is a representation of the microfluidic cell culture platform that I spent much of my PhD designing and working with. It represents all that I hoped to achieve, and all that I instead ended up achieving. If, for some reason, my story speaks to you, then print yourself this coin and cherish it, for it tells a story of its own - perhaps not altogether unlike yours.