Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa)
@jkwasa.bsky.social
BME and Neuro postdoc researcher @ Carnegie Mellon University. Chief Tech Officer. Inclusive and equitable neurotech design. 2024 U.S. Fulbright Scholar. The favorite auntie 😏 Living somewhere between Pittsburgh, Nairobi, and Chicago
ICYMI My new picture book, SPARK, received a great review in Kirkus Reviews 🎉 Coming to bookstores on 10/21/25 via Candlewick Press 🎤 www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews... #STEM #sciencematters #picturebooks #kidsbooks #hiddenfigures #Blackscientist #Blackprofessor
SPARK | Kirkus Reviews
A warm salute to an undersung Black scientist.
kirkusreviews.com
I’m begging neuroscientists to please decide if “Population Neuroscience” will henceforth refer to groups of people or groups of neurons 😭😭
Why does Delta airlines label me Mrs? Not that they need to know my marital status at all, bc it’s Dr!
What happens if you wear an overnight lip balm in the daytime? Do all nighttime products need SPF to make them safe in the sun?
Whatever ancient secret South Africans have in their music, I hope it never dies. Any genre they touch turns to gold. I’m just blessed to be on the same planet to hear it 🙏🏾😩
Check me out! Won last year's Young Explorer Award from AAAS/Science and I get to present my work in Switzerland next week 😎 youngexploreraward.nomisfoundation.ch
NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award – 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award
youngexploreraward.nomisfoundation.ch
Sooo everyone else in my F99/K00 fellowship got their termination notices but I didn’t. My work *and* my mechanism are both DEI What gives?
In a blow to many foreign medical researchers who rely on U.S. funding, the NIH has announced that by the end of September, it will halt what are known as “foreign subawards,” in which U.S. researchers share their grant money with overseas collaborators. scim.ag/42UpRyQ
‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage
Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than “subawards” from U.S. scientists
scim.ag
HOW DO YOU DE-FUND PBS, NPR, NSF, NIH, FDA, CDC, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION??? LIKE WHAT ELSE IS THERE??????????? PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE POST OFFICE????
Budget released today: 40% cut to NIH 50% cut to NSF If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10
Just thinking about how there's literally a BROADWAY MUSICAL about why we needed to enact the Food & Drug Act.
War Paint, Starring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, Ends Broadway Run November 5
The closing will allow two-time Tony winner LuPone to undergo immediate hip replacement surgery.
playbill.com
NIH is ending billions of dollars in foreign subawards, jeopardizing thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more. Unless foreign researchers secure funding directly from NIH by October — a tall order for any researcher — clinical trials abroad and other research will shut down.
Exclusive: NIH to end billions of dollars in foreign research grants
Move by US biomedical agency jeopardizes thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more.
nature.com
I'm personally working on putting my time where my values lie. I'll be attending. mobilize.us/s/TXzddI
Democracy Movement Call · Declaration for American Democracy Coalition
The House has passed the dangerous SAVE Act, but the fight isn’t over. It’s time to move together. Join us for a national movement call to break down what’s at stake, connect the dots between federal...
mobilize.us
SfN reversed their decision, THE WORKSHOP IS ON, it will center around communicating neuroscience to non-English speaking communities, see you at SfN 2025!!!!
Christian Cazares, Ph.D.@fleabrained.bsky.social · last yr.Hi everyone, we are petitioning them to reconsider, if you are willing to co-sign our rebuttal because you or your trainees are personally interested in attending such a workshop, please add your name and professional affiliation to the end of the following document! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
In our first “Postdoc perspectives” essay, @fleabrained.bsky.social and @maribel-patino.bsky.social explain how grassroots organizations led by trainees are stepping up to provide career and mentorship guidance for neuroscience students from marginalized backgrounds. #neuroskyence bit.ly/4csFx0B
As federal funders desert mentorship programs for marginalized students, trainee-led initiatives fill the gap
Grassroots organizations, led by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, are stepping up to provide neuroscience career training and guidance for students from marginalized backgrounds—and…
bit.ly
Forcing people to pay $130 for a passport in order to vote is just a Jim Crow poll tax by another name. It is blatantly unconstitutional.
It’s honestly just another DEI cut. GRFP always had a focus on diversity, outreach, and pipeline strengthening (look up the history and the predecessor programs). As a 2015 recipient, I’m devastated. First Ford, then DSPAN, now GRFP.
Dr. David Miller 🏳️🌈@davidimiller.bsky.social · last yr.New story from @dangaristo.bsky.social on the NSF grad fellowship cuts: A key point: “GRFPs are one of the most cost-effective ways for NSF to give out money,” Evans says, because the outcome is a trained, promising young scientist and it’s relatively inexpensive.
Spectacular view of 100,000 people attending the #HandsOff march in NYC
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
