First NEAS as president is in the books! It was a fun one, more on that soon. Excited to share that NEAS 2027 will return to RI and be co-convened by Kristina Terpis & yours truly. Stay tuned for a fun logo & save the date. Time for the last day of classes… 🫠 #newPI

Saving the best for last, our NEAS president @hannahgreich.bsky.social taking about the phycosphere

4 Ass(t) Profs open Bsky after an algae conference & see this post… No words… 🤬

Way to go, GDD! proud PI here!

Cell bio had their last test today & office hrs are extra quiet… So I redid my conference nametag display & organized it by career stage Two wild realizations: 1) I’ve been going to conferences for a decade 2) NEAS is the only conference I’ve been to at each career stage 🥹 #PhycologyWithoutApology

Cue the pomp & circumstance... I finished lecturing for cell bio today!! Also had a #proudPI moment this #PhycologyFriday. We* did practice NEAS talks during lab meeting & everyone truly leveled up their game. Stoked to see it all come together next week! *ok not me but I'll do mine next week...

Registration for the American Malacological Society meeting in Syracuse, NY this summer is live! hope to see you there! ams.wildapricot.org/AMS-2026-Reg...

Had fun celebrating @sunyesf.bsky.social’s class of 2026 at the spring banquet last night! Excited for this squad to rock conference szn later this month! #newPI

Two years ago today, “Phyco,” the taxidermied leopard in my office, first visited @jlgoff.bsky.social’s office while she was giving a seminar at SU. Iconic collab with @micromaresca.bsky.social & the Bsky-less Aaron during our first semester of teaching at ESF. 🐆

Today (& most phone calls) in #newPI x #eldercare “Do you have tenure?” “When will you get tenure?” & my fav “How’s that going?” Aka ~1/2 of Dad’s core question rotation. I’m glad he still remembers what I do but also fuck Alzheimer’s.

You know what all teams in the men's Final Four (and both women's teams in so far) have in common? HERBARIA. UConn is threatening to cut the staff of our nat history collections (plus many other awful budget cuts). If only we cared as much about biodiversity as we do about buzzer beaters!

Today’s the last day to register for the 64th Northeast Algal Symposium (NEAS) in Salem, MA! #NEAS2026 will feature: 🧹 lots of student presentations! 🧪 a panel on evolving ecosystems! 🐈‍⬛ a banquet (presidentially) hosted by yours truly 🔮 the best conference auction 🔗 northeastalgae.org

Were you so busy celebrating #PhycologyFriday that you maybe forgot to register for the upcoming Northeast Algal Symposium (NEAS)?! Lucky you! The registration & abstract submission deadline has been extended to March 18! #NEAS2026 🧪 northeastalgae.org/future_ac.php

Looking forward to seeing folks next month at the Northeast Algal Society meeting! Don't forget to register! #neas #seaweed #phycologyfriday northeastalgae.org/future_ac.php

Congratulations to my wonderful, bluesky-less PhD student Genevieve Dallmeyer-Drennen on publishing her first lead author paper from her MS on coral diversity in Molecular Ecology! 🪸🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Strong start to the week! Long overdue catch up with @harveyplankton.bsky.social and then met with one of my lab’s wundergrads who told me she set up her excel sheet’s color coding to match the tape labels on her culture experiments. 🤓

I (sadly) haven’t played outside much this winter so I was glad to enjoy the heat wave & take my new sponge hunting gloves for a spin! 🧽 No gemmules found but it was cool to see green lakes not looking green.

Two more #PhycologyFridays to register for the 64th Northeast Algal Symposium (#NEAS) in Salem, MA! 🧪🌊🧙‍♀️🧹🐈‍⬛ 🔗 www.e-neas.org/future_ac.php

Celebrated #PhycologyFriday in lab meeting with project updates & graphical abstracts. Proud #newPI here! 🌊 🧪

Come see my talk on coral phospholipids! ME33A-09 in M1. The session is the Impacts of the 4th Global Bleaching Event (2018 to present) on Coral Reef Ecosystems.

What. A. Week. We had our first feline visitor at lab meeting (Georgie 😻), @jlgoff.bsky.social gave our departmental seminar, and I gave a seminar at SU (not pictured). Somehow next week will be more chaotic (2 guest lectures + 4 regular class periods = a 6 class week). 😵‍💫🤯 #newPI

Georgie visits lab meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😻

Of course the day I finally make it to our 'water' seminar, I bring a notebook but no pen. Niiiice. #newPI

Set a new PR* today… grant submitted a whopping 1 minute before the deadline! *previous PR was 2 minutes before the deadline but that one was a self submit 🤑

Belle was on the edge of her seat (bed) supervising this target date’s edition of “proposal party Sunday.” She was unimpressed so now she’s sleeping elsewhere. #CatsOnSky

Happy Death of James Cook day to those who celebrate. On 14 February 1779 British explorer Captain James Cook was killed as he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief (aliʻi nui) of the island of Hawaii, and hold him hostage for the return of a cutter which Hawaiians had stolen.

Something I didn't expect as a #newPI is I never know what to do with my hands on test days. I start by color coding any chalk & whiteboard markers in the room. Then I tally the # of students who finish the exam in 5min intervals. Setting a reminder to bring a fidget toy next time. #AcademicSky

So excited!!! A bunch of my lab members were notified about receiving college travel awards today! #PhycologyWithoutApology #NEAS2026

More about the NSF GRFP nonsense www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/n...

Must be nice to be a cat and be able to sleep through the flurry of panic emails related to a campus-wide power outage & cold storage. Is February over yet? #newPI

Got a new fidget toy after a week of our flow cytometer’s syringe clasp not budging. Beyond relieved but a little worried about whatever chaos I just summoned by expressing relief. #newPI

This a word cloud from the titles of ~1100 terminated NSF grants. It is hard not to see these grant terminations as an attack on the training of the future United States scientific workforce.

This week was… not my favorite. Grateful to end the week with a fun lab meeting (bulletin board update)! Our lab group is in the double digits now! 😵‍💫 #newPI

Read the RFP and watch your happiness turn to pure rage

This week’s rejection total is now up to 4️⃣ & it’s still not Friday. 🤑🤑🤑🤑 #newPI

Saw this blog post on friendship & academia circulating Bsky last week & it really resonated. Gratitude for my (science) support system defs keeps me going. Today is a new day. Baby steps. #newPI #AcademicSky matthiasrillig.substack.com/p/friendship...

Having a real banner #newPI day... 2 grant rejections (my first double) AND spent hours on the phone with our flow cytometer trying to navigate syringe pump replacement (it won't budge). At least lecture went alright? I think? 5 hours ago might as well have been 5 weeks ago.

Yay! This is one of the nerdiest forms of friendship bracelets 🤓🧪 #newPI

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons: 1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress 2) Write to your congressional reps. 3) Write to [email protected] to request re-consideration;

SUNY did a study and found that faculty are all extremely burnt out! I had no idea! dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/server/api/c...

Happy to share #ASLO_ECC article on #Neurodivergence 🌊🪨🧪 This article reflects on the strengths and needs of the neurodivergent community within aquatic sciences. Thank you to the #ASLO_Bulletin for their support along this process #ActuallyAutistic @aslo.org @geolatinas.bsky.social #Autism #ADHD

20” of snow & counting in CNY! Belle was not impressed today’s #cellbio lecture on zoom. Slept through her kibble dispenser & her cameo on X-chromosome inactivation in calico cats. #newPI

Apparently I spoke too soon? This is… almost a snowday?

One of our lab traditions is that the 2nd lab meeting of every semester is a sampling timepoint for our sharpie mark & recapture study. We were pleased with our recapture rate! Blog on results coming soon. #newPI 🧪

Today’s proposal submission marked some fun firsts… 1st Edu proposal, time incorporating lab data, & I didn’t stay up past 2am on an nsf deadline day. Shocking considering it’s the 1st time a big deadline fell on a cell lecture day. ‘Twas a good #newPI day. We’ll see what chaos tomorrow brings 🤯🤑

Making one final call in search of a few more #insect, #fish, & #fungi options for my #cellbio course's final proj on 'emerging' model organisms. 🐝🐜🐛🐟🐠🦈🐬🍄 #cellbiology #biology #entomology #icthylogy #mycology 🧪 (1/2)

Fun fact: $1 bills can carry human pathogens—including ones with antibiotic resistance genes. doi.org/10.1371/jour... Less fun fact: CNY ASM still needs a treasurer. Good news: no dirty money involved.💵 Interested? Contact [email protected]

This is the closest we will ever get to having a #snowday ☃️🙃 #AcademicSky

Very excited for this! #ProtistsOnSky 🧪