My first paper as a faculty member! Was a lot of fun working w/Tom Kuntzleman, Dean Campbell, & James Hurst on a new oscillating rxn for students to use in lab. You can see, hear, & measure the oscillations, which my students loved! Let me know if you need a PDF copy! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Experimental Observation and Modeling of Potential Oscillations on Iron Electrodes

A comprehensive laboratory exercise is described whereby students measure oscillations in electric potential between iron and carbon electrodes immersed in an acidic solution of hydrogen peroxide. The...

pubs.acs.org

Thrilled to have receive this fellowship to help add new skills to the chemistry curriculum that will help my students become better scientists! And thanks to the college for highlighting it! www.kzoo.edu/news/faculty...

That Computes: Faculty Member's Fellowship to Benefit Students

Cecilia Vollbrecht is one of just 10 faculty members from around the country to earn a fellowship that will help students learn new skills.

kzoo.edu

I gotta say I find a lot of AI discourse around higher ed very confusing. "if ChatGPT can write your essays is college even worth it?" did people think math teachers were assigning problem sets because *they* couldn't figure out the answers?

I am happy and tired after an awesome week of learning with the MolSSI Act-CMS group. And I regret nothing 🤣

Marie van Staveren@chemdrv.bsky.social · last yr.

Lesson learned from the MolSSI ACT-CMS workshop: If @cvollbrecht.bsky.social invites you to the hotel lobby for an evening 'work' session after dinner, don't bother bringing your laptop and be ready to be up past your bedtime

Lesson learned from the MolSSI ACT-CMS workshop: If @cvollbrecht.bsky.social invites you to the hotel lobby for an evening 'work' session after dinner, don't bother bringing your laptop and be ready to be up past your bedtime

Two possible reasons for this are: 1.) Women, POC and/or disabled people are more likely to do equity oriented work 2.) Women, POC and/or disabled people have been marked as DEI regardless of what they do The government will try to point to the former reason when it is in reality the latter

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · last yr.

NSF grant terminations are disproportionately affecting underrepresented scientists. 58% of canceled grants have women PIs, despite making up only 34% of awards. 17% of canceled grants have Black PIs (versus 4% of the pool). Hispanic and disabled PIs are twice as likely to have NSF grants canceled.

📣🧪 $25k grants for those who: 1. are working on research on STEM and education (including AI and CS, graduate education and MSIs, and scholarship that aims to reduce inequality), and 2. have had a recently terminated or cancelled grant from NSF. Early-career scholars prioritized

500 Women Scientists@500womensci.bsky.social · last yr.

🧪 funding alert! www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

A lot is wrong in the world, but a student told me they look forward to office hours every week and I'm holding that close for the day.

This is a new image from #JWST. The bright points with spikes are stars in the Milky Way. Everything else is a galaxy. Everything. Else. Is. A. Galaxy.

It's really ok to say "I am not well-informed enough about this news item that people are discussing to feel like my opinion will contribute meaningfully to the discussion, and therefore I will choose to say nothing."

Students often talk with friends & fam about climate, @lizbarnes.bsky.social + colleagues find. But they tend to go heavy on the stats & facts, and don't know how to bring up solutions. They rarely learn how to have effective conversations, and would love training & practice. Well, guess what! 🧵

Undergraduate Biology Students’ Climate Change Communication Experiences Indicate a Need for Discipline-Based Education Research on Science Communication Education about Culturally Controversial Scien...

Science communication is a key skill for undergraduates, but little research explores how biology students communicate about societally important, yet controversial topics like climate change. In this...

lifescied.org

If you visit the Upper Peninsula of Michigan & go to the shores of Lake Superior at night, be sure to bring a long-wave UV light source so you can hunt for fluorescent Yooper Stones. "Yooper" here is a play on 'U.P.' (Upper Peninsula), but they're rocks that contain a fluorescent mineral, sodalite.

Hi all, I'm hiring a junior specialist/research technician for my lab at UCSC. An ideal applicant would be an undergraduate who would like more research experience before applying for grad school but all are welcome to apply 🧪 recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01882

Bhalla Lab - Research Specialist (Junior Specialist)

University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ucsc.edu

For any REI members who may not realize there is a Board election, or that it is contentious, see this. I ended up supporting one and not supporting the other two. do your research, make your call and VOTE.

Kasey Kagawa@punkey.org · last yr.

If you're an REI member, you can vote to toss out the board that's endorsed Trump's candidate for Dept. of Interior and has worked to stop REI unions. Vote runs until May 2nd. Spread the word. vote.escvote.com/REI/

Does anyone have a running list of universities that have paused or slashed graduate admissions? We’ll add it to ours if it doesn’t exist

Daniel Aldrich@danielaldrich.bsky.social · last yr.

Another consequence from Trump's attack on science : Vanderbilt has temporarily paused graduate student admissions. Current graduate students and faculty raised alarm about research funding, doctoral stipends, visas and career opportunities vanderbilthustler.com/2025/02/15/g...

Hey folks-- If you're a recent (or soon-to-be) analytical chem PhD, or if you know of one... We're hiring a 1-year VAP as sabbatical replacement. We don't do a national search for 1-year positions; it's completely word of mouth. DM me if you want details. #ChemSky

Extremely disappointed to see HHMI decide to kill their Inclusive Excellence program, including terminating the current IE3 awards to over a hundred institutions effective this year in the middle of a 6-year grant. I was hoping HHMI (and other private funders) would continue to lead the way.

Way too much going on in the world. So here’s a #funnyfriday from our dept hallway where we put up a new chemistry joke each week. And yes there is a backstory to the crepe paper horse

Another day of checking the news post-coffee and wanting to scream.

I used to work for an elected official as the person who answered their emails. I can tell you from personal experience, if even twenty or thirty people all call an official in a day, they start panicking. This stuff does help.

Andrew D Thaler@drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 2y ago

I know you hate this advice. I know you hear it all the time, but for gods sake you need to be calling your congressperson. Now. Today. If you have a GOP representative, you need to call and ask if they approve of stripping congress of its constitutional authority. If they like being powerless.

What can you do? Talk loudly about what government actually does for you. Call your reps and tell them to protect federal research and to make government work for all Americans. Write op-eds. Talk about the medical research that saved your life. Share your stories. Help people make the connections.

Fellow scientists, please consider speaking w/ media about what this means for "regular Americans." The link below is to contact a reporter who's collecting stories about the unfolding NIH situation - pls share anonymously or on record. @anniewaldman.bsky.social www.propublica.org/people/annie...

Annie Waldman

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

propublica.org

Jane Liebschutz, MD MPH (she/her)@liebschutz.bsky.social · 2y ago

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

Saw people posting on this and was hoping they were isolated incidents… but nope, it’s real and it’s bad www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring

Researchers facing

science.org

Day 5 of a 3 day weekend. And I don't teach on Thursdays...

Local government and elections have a lot of power on communities….just another reminder

Dominique Baker@bakerdphd.bsky.social · 2y ago

This is an excellent longer read that shows the power of university boards and the way a few key people can change the direction of an entire institution and their local area www.teenvogue.com/story/north-...

Haven’t had a coffee shop workday in a while and it’s bringing me a lot of joy and productivity this morning. Most impressive is maybe the fact that I even had a morning without meetings.