ash silliman
@ashsilliman.bsky.social
ph.d. student | msstate | smith lab b.s. ole miss '24 big fan of philomycus. oh, systematics, phylogeography, and computational biology too. 🐌🦞
Overturning a decades-old policy, the US government will soon limit international students to no more than four years in the United States unless they can secure an extension from the US government go.nature.com/4pIa9lC
International PhD students to face strict limits on time in the US
Trump administration takes action to address ‘forever students’.
go.nature.com
On June 23 of this year, I presented my first in person presentation at a conference (#Evol2026)!
The lab is en route to #Evol2026! We’ve got several talks:
In June, the NSF announced it would award 500 extra Graduate Research Fellowships this year, bringing the total to 1,500 — still a sharp cut from the 2,000 awarded in 2024. However, not a single NSF GRFP in June was awarded to someone studying in the life sciences. www.science.org/content/arti...
Prestigious NSF graduate fellowship tilts toward AI and quantum
Students in the life sciences are shut out of latest cohort of 500 fellows
science.org
Although 500 new NSF GRFPs were added in June, the total number of fellowships in 2025 remains ~500 fewer than in 2024. Some fields—like CS and Physics—still saw net increases in total awards. But others, including Life Sciences & Psychology, have taken hits of 50% or more compared to last year.
Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪
Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science
These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults
scientificamerican.com
& that's a wrap for #Evol2025 ! Thank you to everyone who came to show your support and give constructive feedback for dusti 🐌 It was amazing meeting so many outstanding biologists in the field of evolutionary biology the past few days!
Some sights from the second day of our Texas sampling trip searching for Philomycus! We visited Buescher State Park, Lake Bastrop South Shore, Lake Sommerville, and College Station--lots of cool fungi 🍄
Some sights from around the UT Stengl Lost Pines Field Station, Lake Bastrop, and other hiking trails on our first day of sampling for Philomycus in Texas! Can you spot the hidden animals?
Also in other news, since beginning my master's at MSState last semester, I've decided to pursue a Ph.D instead! I blame the amazing biology department and my wonderful PI and lab for making me fall in love with phylogeography and slugs
Had a blast illustrating some slugs for the lab while I was away on break :-) From left to right: Blue-grey Taildropper (Prophysaon coeruleum) Carolina Mantleslug (Philomycus carolinianus) Red slug (Arion rufus) Banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus)
A list of the number of chromosomes of ten different organisms… Fruit fly = 8 Housefly = 12 Snail = 24 Frog = 26 American badger = 32 Red fox = 34 Cat = 38 Dolphin = 44 Human = 46 Pineapple = 50 * I, for one, welcome our future pineapple overlords
New title unlocked: slug radiologist (MicroCT scan on slug!)
End of semester 'favorite animal' word cloud from my animal diversity class. Not strange at all how many of them love snails and slugs.
