1/n Good news everyone! I'm excited to announce the lab's first manuscript is accepted and (preliminarily) published at @plos.org Computational Biology! This is an absolutely surreal moment as a #NewPI 😀 #neuroskyence #compneuro #AcademicSky 🧪 journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

It’s brutal in academia right now. A lot is out of our control, but it doesn’t cost anything to remember that there are humans behind papers and grants…reviewers, program officials and funders can be more empathetic in the face of unprecedented chaos in the US scientific enterprise.

I remember Tractor Traylor. I remember irrelevance. I remember John Beilein winning with 0* recruits Zak Novak and Stu Douglass. I remember Spike Albrecht nearly becoming a legend. I remember Captain Hook. Now, for the first time in my lifetime… Michigan Basketball are NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

To my all the amazing @uconn.bsky.social students, some friendly advice: Generally speaking, it’s never good to imitate Buckeyes ;) Oh, and GO BLUE!!!

A friend is an engineer in Silicon Valley. Unsurprisingly, AI is integral to his day-to-day. Somewhat surprisingly, he’s fully on board. I believe relying on AI undermines the creative thought required for research. But now I’m thinking, what tasks, if any, WOULD be an appropriate use of AI for us?

Second desk rejection in 48ish hours arrives at 7 pm on a Friday night, and with it the realization that my skin is not nearly as thick as I thought it was 2 years into being a PI. 🫠🫠🫠

At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

1/5 Big news: the pre-print for my final postdoc paper is (finally) out! Why did it take so long? We significantly expanded the manuscript thanks largely to the incredible work of one of my first undergraduates here at @uconn.bsky.social @uconnresearch.bsky.social 😀 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Since the Scrubs reboot was actually enjoyable, my lizard millennial brain reverted to thinking maybe I should’ve been a medical doctor. Then I finally started The Pitt… and I’m pretty sure I made the right choice. Balance 😅😂

Coming soon: The Mohegan Sun Rich Lab presented by Dr. Pepper.

I built a bluesky labeler for neuroscience methods. 1️⃣ follow/subscribe to: @neuromethods.bsky.social 2️⃣ like the post with your favorite method ➡️ get a shiny methods label in your profile/posts. 🌟

www.science.org/content/arti... Cool time to start a science career. As a grad student in the early 2010’s I thought I was lucky because I didn’t have to worry about funding at the time and things would be better when I was trying to start my lab

WHAT. A. GOAL. Sorry Canadian friends and family 😅😅😅

Hear me out… maybe putting an athlete who toils in relative obscurity for 99% of their life under a two week international microscope that defines their entire career doesn’t do them any good.

I will always be proud to be (half) Canadian.

I wish more senior academics would explicitly say this to their peers. The traditional trajectory of building a lab and getting tenure has been completely upended. Validating the anxieties that stem from this new reality means so much more than (even well meaning) “back in my day” advice.

Being interdisciplinary mostly means everyone agrees your work is interesting but not for their journal.

I’ve always been proud to be an alumnus of the Duke Chronicle (even though I was in the Sports section, hahaha). The Chronicle has always been a bastion for quality, independent student journalism. Seeing that recognized is such a boost 😀😀😀

If you parent a college student, could you pretty please with sugar on top ask them to stop using ChatGPT to email their professors? These emails are driving us slowly bananas.

Today I learned I am at the “perturbed rather than excited by back-to-back snow days” stage of being a professor. A small part of me has died.

Have had this happen to me a couple times over the last year, including on a re-review of a manuscript I had serious concerns about (so they really should’ve wanted my input!). This is very low on the priority list of things to fix with peer review, but it is disproportionately irritating 😡😡😡

Remember that week on the Old Site where we all put our thesis/paper titles in a very early AI image generator for shits and giggles? I miss those simple times… of about 5 years ago.

Revision of the lab’s first manuscript submitted! Now the (anxious) waiting begins…

Realizing that Futurama perfectly predicted AI in scientific research 15 years ago: youtu.be/LCPhbN1l024

Ok I forgot how brilliant John Noble is… I’m back fully hooked. Also the cow.

On one hand, I’m so excited that FRINGE is finally streaming somewhere for a nostalgic rewatch. On the other hand, I’m 20 minutes in I’ve scoffed at the pseudoscientific nonsense that used to entertain me a half dozen times. And yet…

Why can I NEVER spell the word analagous right on the first try? Damn it, I did it again!

I’m reminded of recent stories in @theatlantic.com on grade inflation. The common thread? The idea that educators are now evaluated on student “satisfaction” rather than, you know, whether students actually learn what they are supposed to. We’ve got work to do. apple.news/AY76JVMD-SWe...

The part of this that doesn’t get talked about enough? The creeping expectation that educators are in the “customer service” business. Education shouldn’t be thought of as a business at all, while we’re at it. (Can you tell it’s end-of-semester grading season? 🫠🫠🫠)

A proud #NewPI moment to break-up your daily doomscroll: In six weeks, my first rotation student went from not having coded since undergrad to having a 2D neuronal network visualized via movies up and running. AND they want to keep doing computational neuroscience as part of their thesis 😀

The world is on fire, but at least it's a great time to be a college basketball addict who got his undergrad from Duke, his Ph.D. from Michigan, and currently teaches at UConn 😉

Today was a good day 😈😈😈

"Neuroscientists need better training in computational methods." We got you. Join us in July: neuromatch.io/courses/ Our #ComputationalNeuroscience course is the perfect way to gain practical experience and build a strong foundation in this field.

That halftime show is why only Detroit/Michigan teams should be allowed to do the Seven Nation Army chant at sporting events. An explosion of Detroit pride. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

This is terrifying. As university educators, if we can’t trust that students’ grades actually reflect their knowledge and understanding, where do we even start? How do we teach dozens (hundreds!) of students at a time if they don’t all have the appropriate foundation? apple.news/ASXIhp9hAS1C...

One of the only recent time travel shows (spoiler alert for a years old show that’s spoiled in its own trailer?) that uses it as a proper storytelling device and not a gimmick. Plus, there’s an internal logic and rules that it sticks to for the whole run. Can’t recommend enough.

Grant resubmitted. With a four month old baby. Hallelujah! I know I should feel some sense of pride/accomplishment/relief, but right now all I’m able to think about is what I would’ve improved if I had another month and/or a less sleep deprived brain. #NewPI imposter syndrome at its finest!

Waiiiiit… does this apply to the resubmission in submitting Monday that is b 99.9% done? I’m not sure if I appreciate the extra time or am bad I’ve worked so much to finish things this week only for it to be for naught. It’s the latter 😡😡😡

Since the vibe around here has changed over the past 24 hours (wonder why?), let me add to the good news with my own: After a long wait, the lab’s first paper received a very reasonable R&R!!!

Can’t emphasize how good this is if it gets universally adopted. I felt like such a burden on my (very supportive!) mentors every time I had to ask for another letter, or prod them about a deadline. It’s just an unnecessary extra stressor on everyone involved in the process.

Umm… If KK Arnold has leveled up the way she seems to have nothing else matters, because everyone is going to be fighting for second behind UConn. (Also: Hi fellow Chronicle alum! 😀)

Ummmm I think baseball is broken

I’m at the #NewPI stage where I still respond to every email inquiry. It’s not sustainable, but I want to at least try. But regularly getting emails addressed to “Dr. Scott” is going to burn that out of me quickly. If you don’t take the time to know my name, do I need to take the time to reply?

There was a looooong time I was pushing to name our daughter Lyra, so when I say I’m excited for this it may be the understatement of the year. (Aside: I hope all of us scientists are putting His Dark Materials in the hands of our children ASAP.) apple.news/A6xaGr2gRTui...

Nearly a week and still stuck on a “Decision in Progress” status… I’ve never experienced a stall like this at this stage! By the time I get a decision it’ll be four full months, which seems unusually slow even for these unprecedented times 🫠🫠🫠

The first time my Dad duties have helped my work: my baby girl’s poop explosion just reset my brain enough to write the perfect sentence for an idea I had been agonizing over for the previous hour 😂😂😂

Omg this worked back into happy anxiety mode GO TIGERS

After 3+ months in review, the status on the lab’s first manuscript has finally progressed. Cue the anxiety spike to every email until the decision comes. 😅🤔😂 🤞🤞🤞

In all my years of having my mental health disproportionately determined by sports (yes I’m aware of the problem!), I’ve never felt so… RESIGNED to the end of a once promising season like I am with these Detroit Tigers. May this skeet anti-jinx them into playing actually competitive baseball.