Dr. Kassandra Ford

@kassthefish.bsky.social

Assistant Professor @UMNFWCB & Fish Curator @BellMuseum • The Convergence Lab • Electric fishes • MN fishes • Black Birder • Cat Herder • Wisconsinite • BLM • she/her • 🏳️‍🌈 ♠️ • www.kassandraford.com • Thoughts are my own

Help needed!! The summer got the best of me in terms of getting my shark sculpture to Minnesota, but now I really REALLY need some help! If anyone is making road trip legs between Baltimore or Pittsburgh towards the Midwest, PLEASE let me know! My fish lab would love to see this happen! Thanks 🦈

Gen Wojcik@genandgenes.bsky.social · last yr.

Come meet me to transfer a shark sculpture! It fits in my Honda Odyssey, so any vehicle with at least that much space would work. The first leg is to Pittsburgh and I can meet you halfway. In this hellscape, bring a little good to your world. Also, my kids think I'm moderately cool now.

Come meet me to transfer a shark sculpture! It fits in my Honda Odyssey, so any vehicle with at least that much space would work. The first leg is to Pittsburgh and I can meet you halfway. In this hellscape, bring a little good to your world. Also, my kids think I'm moderately cool now.

Dr. Kassandra Ford@kassthefish.bsky.social · last yr.

Hi folks, I've got a follow up request about my large (~10ft) shark sculpture 🦈 Can this network help me come up with a caravan of folks who can transport the sculpture from the Baltimore area to the Illinois/Wisconsin/Minnesota area? The sculpture fit in a minivan! And I can help w/ gas money

Hi folks, I've got a follow up request about my large (~10ft) shark sculpture 🦈 Can this network help me come up with a caravan of folks who can transport the sculpture from the Baltimore area to the Illinois/Wisconsin/Minnesota area? The sculpture fit in a minivan! And I can help w/ gas money

Bild
Dr. Kassandra Ford@kassthefish.bsky.social · last yr.

Okay huge ask/question. Do I know anyone in the Baltimore area who could store a ~10ft shark sculpture for me? I was supposed to go pick it up this month but my schedule has gotten chaotic. I could pick it up later in the spring or early summer 👀 It should fit in a mini van or Suburban for transit

Scientists love to debate and argue, but if there are 3 things every scientist absolutely agrees on, it's that: 1. Climate change is real 2. Vaccines work 3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤 🧪

“De-extinction” is to biodiversity loss what “Mars colonization” is to climate change—wishful thinking that is at its core impossible but nevertheless sucks up attention and resources from actual solutions to these crises (which, ultimately, might be the whole point)

The NSF's flagship fellowship program typically gives offers to 2,000+ young scientists. This year, in the face of looming budget cuts, that number was halved: only 1,000 received an offer. Our story on what that means for the science talent pipeline: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half

US National Science Foundation announces lowest number of Graduate Research Fellowship Programme recipients in 15 years.

nature.com

Congratulations to Bell affiliate @pjhundt.bsky.social on his recent publication, which describes several new species of studfish! Peter Hundt has added many fish specimens to the Bell’s collections. Read more about his research in our blog post: www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/blog/newly-d...

Phylogenomic species delimitation of studfishes (Fundulidae: Fundulus ): evidence for cryptic species in agreement with the central highlands vicariance hypothesis | Zootaxa

mapress.com

Trying to come up with the words to say. I'm terrified for our students. We just received an email that an international grad student at UMN has been detained. Minnesota has laws stating police are not required to provide info to ICE. Admin claims no info was given. How can we protect our people?

Okay huge ask/question. Do I know anyone in the Baltimore area who could store a ~10ft shark sculpture for me? I was supposed to go pick it up this month but my schedule has gotten chaotic. I could pick it up later in the spring or early summer 👀 It should fit in a mini van or Suburban for transit

Yay!! A federal judge in California sided with a coalition of unions, temporarily barring the Office of Personnel Management from ordering federal agencies to terminate probationary workers, stating that the firings were ‘illegal, should be stopped, and rescinded.’

BREAKING: The mass firing of upwards of 1,800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including top climate scientists and weather forecasters, has begun. The firings reportedly include workers at the National Weather Service.

Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · last yr.

Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.

The NIH announced it will slash billions of dollars of support to universities and research centers. This is one of the biggest attacks on science we have ever seen. It could dismantle the biomedical research system, shut down clinical trials, and halt development of treatments.

Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.

This is going to be absolutely catastrophic for academic research. The amount of support public universities get from grants is astronomical, so those universities can be functional. It's not a waste; it literally supports our country's medical research. Science is valid!!!

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last yr.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Not the university changing to a new HR & purchasing system (called PEAK) to make things more "centralized." Sadly the E in PEAK doesn't stand for Efficiency 🤦🏾‍♀️ My folks are dealing with late pay, missing research checks, incorrect tuition reimbursements, and lack of health insurance 😬

While Trump has been distracting America with everything else, Elon Musk’s staffers are quietly taking over NOAA and the Department of Labor. They are also using AI to help rewrite a significant portion of the federal government’s computer systems.

Hi everyone. Just a reminder that it's okay to not be okay. I'm overwhelmed by everything and very much LIVID at what's happening. Things are bad and unprecedented. Know I love you all. Science is real. Trans people deserve life and happiness. Your feelings are valid. YOU are valid.