Just got home from a wedding with by far the best wedding favor I’ve ever seen… pretty sure this item alone cost like 50% of what my entire wedding cost, but hey I’m not going to complain that I finally got my own custom cowboy hat after 10+ years in Texas!

Me: hey grad college this tuition scholarships policy punishes students with external fellowships + their PIs. Also don’t bait and switch students about their eligibility. Grad College: sorry not sorry, and you should just do the thing you literally pointed out was a negative impact of our policy.

Woke up this morning feeling… tenured.

Genuinely curious, how many of my science PI colleagues are at universities that do NOT have doctoral hooding ceremonies at graduation? Because our university apparently quietly announced they were taking this away, just in time for my first PhD student to graduate and I’m BIG mad.

Updating my annual financial disclosure and noticed that now not only do I have to disclose any financial interests that could appear like a COI (normal and understandable), but the university is also now requiring any and all foreign collaborations to be reported. I hate this timeline.

A fantastic use of checks and balances in government! More of this please!

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist@princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Yaaas! Good news on a Sunday! The senate moves to temporarily ban the OMB proposal that would allow political appointees in charge of approving federal grants, especially #NIH grants. Recall that the OMB rule yielded 500k comments, 95% of them against it. 🧪 www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

Yes this!! But not just trains BETWEEN cities, but also reliable mass transit IN the city too. Everyone says they want the bullet train loop in Texas, but I ask what good is it to get from Austin to DFW fast by train if I still need a car to get around once I’m there??

still a pistachio@streetlightlily.horntforgood.com · 8mo ago

You don’t want hands free driving, you want trains. You want trains you want trains you want TRAINS

Thanks to this grant we will be hiring!! Our grad position ad is already live with more opportunities forthcoming. But if you’re interested in postdoc or technician positions, please reach out! fuesslab.wp.txstate.edu/opportunities/

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Alright now that I’m home I guess it’s time to officially announce some really good news: I have received an NIH R35 MIRA!! This award will fund five years of research in my group using Aiptasia to study context dependency and GxGxE interactions in animal-microbe symbioses!

Alright now that I’m home I guess it’s time to officially announce some really good news: I have received an NIH R35 MIRA!! This award will fund five years of research in my group using Aiptasia to study context dependency and GxGxE interactions in animal-microbe symbioses!

My lab at @stonybrooku.bsky.social Dept of Ecology & Evolution is recruiting a 2-year Postdoc! They will split time between genomics and symbiosis dynamics of cnidarians 🪸, and the development of STAGdb. Start date as early as Sept 2026. Please share this post with anyone who might be a great fit!

I’ve been traveling for over 24 hours, ran through LAX to not miss my connection, and am utterly exhausted. Consequently I have no tolerance for the jerk in front of me who thinks it’s ok to recline their seat on a 2.5 hour flight. (My intrusive thoughts really want to kick the back of bros seat)

How it feels having secured the largest grant of my career in this climate… (Of course with new OMB rules that explosion could be coming for me too… but at least I kicked the can a little farther down the road)

Those NOA vibes (kiwi edition)

Please #ICRS2026 I’m begging you, use the microphone!!!! Seriously the background noise is significant in a lot of rooms, and many people have hidden disabilities. Just use the mic. And organizers, please do not hold another conference without figuring out how to have live captions.

Finally, at 3:30, Brooke Sienkiewicz will be talking about the microbiome side of Erin’s SCTLD dataset! All in all a big day for the lab!

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 2mo ago

More talks today at #ICRS2026 from the Symbiommunity Lab (+ friends)! PhD student Erin Shilling will be presenting on another SCTLD dataset from her dissertation. Room 504 at 10:20!! Then at 2:45 in the same room, Nick Jones will be sharing an update from our SCTLD-environment study!

More talks today at #ICRS2026 from the Symbiommunity Lab (+ friends)! PhD student Erin Shilling will be presenting on another SCTLD dataset from her dissertation. Room 504 at 10:20!! Then at 2:45 in the same room, Nick Jones will be sharing an update from our SCTLD-environment study!

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you’re planning your afternoon schedule at #ICRS2026, I’ll be speaking on a multi-institutional project investigating how holobiont interactions shape resistance and response to SCTLD. 4:15 in room 515!

Also more generally, if you’re here and looking for new opportunities in evolutionary ecology, immunology, and symbiosis of cnidarians, find me! I’m hiring for just about every position you could imagine! Exciting things on the horizon. #ICRS2026

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you’re planning your afternoon schedule at #ICRS2026, I’ll be speaking on a multi-institutional project investigating how holobiont interactions shape resistance and response to SCTLD. 4:15 in room 515!

If you’re planning your afternoon schedule at #ICRS2026, I’ll be speaking on a multi-institutional project investigating how holobiont interactions shape resistance and response to SCTLD. 4:15 in room 515!

Feeling those “award prepared” vibes…

Every time Atomic by Colony House comes up on my Spotify I can’t help but laugh at the “explicit” label and the fact that the CCM girlies got their panties in a wad cause Stephen Curtis Chapmans kids used the word “asshole”as a direct reference to the DISNEY movie “The Kid” 🤣

UC Davis Ecology & Evolution Grad Preview Program is accepting applications until July 20th! It's a fully virtual program where you are paired with a grad student mentor and learn about what grad school entails, how to apply, and what student life is like! Please share widely!

Not quite office door worthy, but the dim sum that preceded it was fantastic.

Girls come on.. leave the Hawaiian shirts at conferences to the men? I don’t think so! #evol2026 (Also if you get this reference and get my shirt we should be friends)

As a horse owner, I am very much not ok right now. Literally thinking about bubble wrapping my guy for the entirety of the near future.

Texas Observer@texasobserver.org · 3mo ago

The larvae hatch and latch onto their host with hooklike mouthparts, supping voraciously for 14 days before metamorphosizing into adult flies. Female flies can lay 300 eggs at a time, and larvae can feed so vigorously as to cause the death of their host within one week.

Registration for the American Society of Naturalists stand-alone meeting is now open! www.amnat2027.org The former Asilomar meeting will be held in a mansion on Long Island in Jan '27. Limit of 200 people. @asn-amnat.bsky.social #Evol2026

One more talk from my lab today at #Evol2026. Postdoc @calebcbutler.com will be presenting on our collaborative project with @raulgoch.bsky.social searching for conserved mechanisms of cnidarian symbioses. Come hear more about this exciting project.

If you’re a student interested in doing a Master’s degree on the evolution of invasive plants, let’s connect at #Evol2026

Also a reminder that I’m recruiting students (and a tech), so come find me if you’re interested!! I’ll be at our lovely TXST Biology booth during coffee breaks and poster sessions to talk about all the exciting graduate opportunities at our institution.

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Gearing up for a full first day at #Evol2026 which includes two presentations from my lab group! I’ll be talking this morning about recent work investigating patterns of disease resilience in tropical corals. Then tonight MS student Carly Travers has a poster on her thesis studying immune memory!

Gearing up for a full first day at #Evol2026 which includes two presentations from my lab group! I’ll be talking this morning about recent work investigating patterns of disease resilience in tropical corals. Then tonight MS student Carly Travers has a poster on her thesis studying immune memory!