It is with a mix of fierce joy and heartfelt sadness that we report the successful thesis defenses of DOCTORS Wontae Lee, Carley Ort, and Raymond Tran. CONGRATULATIONS! Rock solid performances, and super insightful work into the nature of mechanical force and stiffness evolution in various tissues, and developmentally biomimetic strategies for pancreas mechano-engineering. These three have formed the backbone of the lab for many years, and will be missed greatly.