Our FLC SACNAS @sacnas.bsky.social student group put together some midterm crash out snack baskets for their peers! Such a great idea for this busy week that the brain needs energy!

It’s the time of the semester that students are choosing grad programs and acceptances for summer internships. Such a happy time amid the chaos around us.

Yesterday we held our 2026 Pueblo Feast day at FLC! As their co-advisor, it’s amazing to see the Pueblo Alliance students plan this community event. We had a workshop on pottery, two amazing dance groups perform & delicious food prepared. Bringing our culture to campus is reconcilation in action.

Black History Month isn’t nostalgia—it’s truth-telling. This city, this country, was built by Black hands, Black labor, Black brilliance. Honoring that history isn’t radical. Erasing it is. Remember who built the mosaic—and who’s still trying to break it.

What a great weekend spent with undergrads at the ACS Graduate School Readiness Bootcamp! It was awesome to be a facilitator and help students get ready for their next steps in life! As a PI, I tried to remind them we are human and want the best for them. But funding is definitely an issue.

Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.

First day back to teaching, & still masking! This start of semester is hard with what’s happening in the US now. I’m distracted, my students too. I told students to show up if they can but communicate with me if they cannot. Though ICE is in major cities, I know folks may have loved ones affected.

End of 2025, we got our collaborative paper published! It’s exciting to be part of BioDIGS to bring microbiome research and education to undergraduates. Happy to see 2 FLC students as co-authors! 1/2 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unearthing soil biodiversity through collaborative genomic research and education - Nature Genetics

The BioDIGS project is a nationwide initiative involving students, researchers and educators across more than 40 research and teaching institutions. Participants lead sample collection, computational ...

nature.com

The days between December 25 and January 1 are the Lanthanides and Actinides of the Gregorian calendar

Help our undergraduate research program on #givingtuesday ! We’ve got incredible students who can benefit from any donation size. givingday.fortlewis.edu/giving-day/1...

#FLCForever

Support #FLCFOREVER Giving Tuesday 2025!

givingday.fortlewis.edu

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 333 tenure-track positions and 48 teaching-only positions: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #facultychemjobs #chemsky #chemchat ⚗️🧪

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List

docs.google.com

BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students. Follow AP for live updates.

Live updates: US voters head to the polls in first general election since Trump's return to power

One year after Donald Trump retook the presidency, 2025 Election Day includes closely watched races for New York City mayor, New Jersey governor and California's Proposition 50.

bit.ly

I'm giving a webinar with AACT on Tues Nov 11 at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST. It's free! It's only an hour! Register here: teachchemistry.org/professional... #iTeachChem

Webinars | Is this really science? How social justice conversations benefit your chemistry class | AACT

AACT is a professional community by and for K–12 teachers of chemistry

teachchemistry.org

Collaborating with American Chemical Society (ACS) along with some great speakers on this amazing panel tomorrow at #ndiSTEM2025!

Gave my practice talk at rehearsal for #ndistem2025! I forget the bright lights and size of the audience! Excited to be here in Columbus for the #SACNAS conference!

There is active ICE behavior in the Durango community. It’s hard to teach when all of this is happening.

Next with Kyle Clark@nexton9news.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Immigrant advocacy groups and community members protested at a Durango ICE building after the detention of a father and his two children.

I’ve donated supplies to my local food bank. If you can to help your community, do so!

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 10mo ago

Americans brace for food stamps to run out: ‘the greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’

"...researchers who invest time in their students tend to lead more-productive, more-collaborative groups and attract stronger future students than those who do not." "Time spent with the next generation of scientists is an investment." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision

Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.

nature.com

Celebrating Indigenous People’s Day at Fort Lewis College. The rain pushed back our solidarity walk but such great words from a keynote speaker and wrapped up with lunch! Got to pose with our college president!

Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities. alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️@napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 10mo ago

There are a bunch of people who are live in western Alaska showing the flooding. It's calming down, but dang... I haven't heard much from Kotzebue. This one is Bethel: www.tiktok.com/t/ZTH74wUUXq...

Some things I saw recently that I think are cool (Native American jewelry edition): — Neil Zarama. New Ralph Lauren collab coming (IG whirlinglog_and_arrow) — Troy Oviedo (IG troyoviedo) 😮‍💨 — Falcon Trading Company (IG ftcjewelry) — Samuel Sumpter (IG nabaahii_bizhiil_creations)

three cheers for slow science, each Nobel representing decades of inquiry that paved the way for the technology, treatments, & toys of tomorrow: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/s...

Nobel Prizes This Year Offer Three Cheers for Slow Science

nytimes.com

Today was a hard day for Ph.D. students who found out that they can no longer apply for NSF's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program. "Devastating“ was how one student described it to me. #GradSchool #NSFGRFP www.science.org/content/arti...

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry

The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

science.org

Today in my chemical biology course, students were able to perform molecular docking using SwissDock! The web-server has a huge update & output opens in ChimeraX (seen below) pretty well. To compare the prediction with a known structure, they did an alignment with poses. Predictions were close! 1/2

The sad truth is that vaccines and vaccination are a feedback loop. We take them for granted because they work well for the most part. Then we take them away because of concerns or downright quackery. Then the diseases come roaring back, making vaccines cool again. In the interim, people die.

Canceled my Amazon Prime a while back. But canceled my Hulu/Disney+ today. Bummed to miss out on High Potential and Abbott Elementary in their upcoming season.

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

nsf.gov

First Bernie Sanders. Then the CDC directors. Now, more than 1,000 current and former HHS staffers are demanding he step down.

RFK Jr.’s enemies list just got a lot longer

First Bernie Sanders. Then CDC directors. Now, more than 1,000 current and former HHS staffers are demanding he step down.

motherjones.com

There are lots of rumors flying around about what might happen to COVID vaccine access, but please note we still do not have any official news yet. While we wait, there are things you can do: 1️⃣ Wear a mask to prevent COVID transmission 2️⃣ Push your elected officials to speak up about vaccine access