Roughly half of STEM PhD students in the U.S. are international students. 75% of them stay in the U.S. long term after graduating to contribute their skills to U.S. scientific research and development. Cutting international student visas hurts U.S. science now and long into the future.

Hey y'all. Love all the love for the program (we're pretty proud of it too). But the fact that the solicitation is archived does NOT mean that the program is shutting down. We're hanging in there, struggling through the uncertainty with everyone else.

LTER has been archived for about a year now. It’s normal between solicitations. LTER is still here.

Post Doc position alert! Come work with us on the evolution of cannibalism. Full job description in link below. Salary starts at $58k plus benefits. (Please help spread the word) emdz.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

This administration is not making a long-term investment in science, discovery, and innovation nor the people, projects, and sites that make it happen.

Oh no. NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program shuttered. This one leaves me winded. A good story from 2025 by @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social offers insight into what we are losing: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

The data also reinforce a message that should be clear: American leadership in science and medical research requires far more than getting across the line on top-line budget negotiations and will require continued vigilance to track how HHS treats applications and existing awards.

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted. What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards. Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

New with @tn-marine-micro.bsky.social, exploring how viral-mediated infection and lysis can fuel the marine food web: theconversation.com/viruses-aren...

It was an honor to work with this group... and the paper is excellent, but the implications for tropical ecosystems make me really sad. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It’s officially happening folks! The Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference is back in Andover, New Hampshire starting June 27th of 2027! See you there!! @wcratcliff.bsky.social @ksbakes.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social #microsky #mevosky

Looking forward to the Modern Coexistence Theory workshop tomorrow. Please repost :)

Cool papers: #1 ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/IE...

Ecology faces an accumulation of models but not an accumulation of confidence. Our new paper w/ Jonathan Levine www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @natecoevo.nature.com introduces a rigorous test rooted in queueing theory to falsify inadequate models and build confidence in useful ones.

🧪,🌍,#ecoevo

Hi all! I am seeking an ecology or applied math PhD student interested in quantitative ecology, specifically ecological theory, food web modeling, or population dynamics. If you are interested, have a look at our lab website below and reach out to me. resiliencelab.github.io/join/

Job Alert! Looking for a PhD student and a postdoc in quantitative ecology Deets here: resiliencelab.github.io/join/

Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this! The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems 📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025... Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

Happy to share our research on traditional farming landscapes in northwest Himalaya is out in Science Advances! Thanks to my advisor Tulja & all the wonderful collaborators- Ale @ornithoale.bsky.social, Katie @kasolari.bsky.social, Akshata, Kullu, Rinchen, Lamaji. 1/7 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interested in theory and looking for a postdoc or grad school? Come talk to me at #ESA2025! resiliencelab.github.io/join/

A 23% reduction in staff at the EPA and closure of their research program will make it much easier for companies to pollute land, water, and air without being held accountable. This will hurt all of our children and grandchildren. This is very sad to watch. 🧪 www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

a new study found that experienced open source programmers became 19% less efficient when they used AI tools, because they spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generation output than they saved on coding.

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr... "For every dollar spent [on science], the economy eventually produces an additional $1.71 in output. That return exceeds nearly every other form of public or private investment."

Okay I know I've got a bunch of bug needs among my followers, and y'all need to see this one LOOK AT IT

A synthetic paper about fast vs. slow responses of ecological systems to changing climate, explaining how and why those responses can shift (even in sign) over time. Examples across scales and subdiscplines (population genetics, ecosystem ecology). besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Paper: "data available upon request" Upon request: "our data source doesn't want us to share data"

Job in my lab: 3yr postdoc on how and when complexity promotes network stability. Looking for physics, math, or theory folks who use analytical approaches, but there'll be great opportunities for data connections too. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

How bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)

Soybeans and sirloin are not incompatible with science. But a country that only produces soybeans and sirloin is going to run into some recurring, structural problems. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How do ecological communities respond to pulse perturbations (e.g. storms, wildfires)? We have a solid theory for stable fixed points, but what about cycles, transients, or chaos? In this preprint, we introduce a unified framework for these nonequilibrium cases. 1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Done. Please comment, click on public comments on left bar. Suggestions in thread. bsky.app/profile/free...

Dad: what papers are you writing rn? Me: an exam for my course Dad: that's not a paper Me: I KNOW!! 🙃

Favorite word of the month: equifinality. When multiple paths lead to the same end.

First time teaching is fun but so much admin. First time in weeks I can sit in my sunny office and do math. So happy.

ELECTION RESULT: A team of city council members in Rolla, Missouri, have been pushing anti-LGTB policies, including a ban on drag shows and book censorship. Voters just ousted all three of these city councilors who were running for reelection, backing candidates backed by a local LGBT group.

Made a pop dyn lecture for my bio freshmen, and I effectively called discrete-time models "seasonal models". Because discrete vs continuous time dynamics really differ with nonoverlapping generations. And most of the time generations don't overlap because of seasonality.

in case you're wondering, "what's the harm in claiming an extinct species has been brought back from the dead" when it most certainly has not, our interior secretary is already using it to justify taking animals off the endangered species list

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

It me.

New paper! (arxiv.org/abs/2503.14093) I haven’t been this excited about one in a while, and I think the theory @mhab.bsky.social develops here will be a big step forward for the field. Why? Let me explain 🧵...

Lower survival rate among trainees in labs with highly productive mentors raises important concerns about what we value in academia. Many interesting things to stew over with this paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now _that's_ a dish towel.

Long-form perspective, inspired by today's rallies in the context of ongoing attacks on science and scientists. open.substack.com/pub/joshuasw...

Total shocker www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/u...

Great news: the Merit Systems Protection Board just ordered the reinstatement of 5,000+ federal employees wrongly fired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as the Office of Special Counsel investigates these mass firings. More: www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/p... Keep watching this space.

Portland

An attempt to make sense of things with a conservative relative: Do you agree with cutting science jobs like mine? CR: Oh just weather it out for 4 years But should scientists like me have jobs? CR: I'd need more information What if Trump wants to fire me? CR: Oh - I'd back you

Man is it hard to focus on writing climate change NSF and NOAA proposals right now

My essay on #substack focuses on shifts in HHS priorities to 'root causes' & how budgets are not the only target. Instead, funding is likely to shift towards supplements & ineffective/dangerous 'cures' & re-evaluating vaccines. Trading science for pseudoscience. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Awful and they won't be satisfied with even this. If not stopped, DOGE will dismantle American leadership in science & damage communities and economies throughout the US. joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/cutting-th...