There is a fully-funded PhD position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to pursue dissertation research among the Mayangna of Nicaragua, expanding a longitudinal study of subsistence strategies and behavioral ecology. Please share the posting!
www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit...
Dear Member of Congress: The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) are deeply grateful for the longstanding bipartisan support from Congress for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We want to inform you of current and likely impacts of delays and changes in funding policies and procedures for NIH grants. Our concerns relate to the following areas within NIH: • Massive reduction in notice of funding opportunities • Delays in funding processes and inadequate capacity to administer grants • Increase in forward funding of multiyear awards in year one • Delays and potential lapses in funding for large clinical trial networks and clinical trial units Lack of transparency around permitted international collaborative partners for research projects • Disproportionate impact of grant terminations on vulnerable populations, especially women and people of color
U.S. infectious disease research is on the brink. Without immediate action from Congress, much of it will cease to exist within a year.
For example👇
1️⃣ No collaborative RFAs posted for >1 year (normal: many / year).
2️⃣ No foreign collaborators allowed on grants.
🧪🪦 www.idsociety.org/globalassets...
literally every day my wife or I go outside with our daughter people go out of their way to be friendly, offer aid or a kind word, no matter where we've traveled. it's nice to remember that hostility as default mode of interaction is not destiny, much as it benefits some to pretend it is
Courtney will be starting her PhD with us at @psuanthro.bsky.social this fall, working closely with Mary Shenk and me and pursuing a dual-title in Demography with @ssripennstate.bsky.social.
Can't wait to see what you do next, Courtney!!
Courtney is a committed member of the veterans' community, supporting veteran student success in higher ed, and is finishing her master's paper on women's social support networks in Tanzania in collaboration with @kris-smith.bsky.social and me.
Courtney studies how rural social networks can be sources of mutual social support, and how those networks are changing with migration - with implications for people's well-being. She's done research in the US and now increasingly in sub-Saharan Africa.
GRFP fellow Courtney Elmore celebrates the news with sushi
Congratulations to my MA student Courtney Elmore on her NSF GRFP!! A thread about Courtney's research, accomplishments, and where she's headed 🧵
#NSFfunded #veteransinSTEM #earlycareerresearcher #anthropology
2,599 applicants offered NSF GRFP awards! Congrats to all the NSF GRFP award winners and recipients of honorable mention. https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList
Massive and important positive news...
#NSF #GRFP awards are out.
2,599 awards!
+
1,440 Honorable Mentions.
A significant boost from last year.
Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)!
& many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible.
www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
A few days ago, @wamsleylab.bsky.social pointed out that SBE has only awarded 16 grants this fiscal year (should be closer to ~200). bsky.app/profile/wams...
I’m so thoroughly disgusted by having to constantly ask “so where is the money now/where is it going?”
The FY2027 budget requests $1.5 trillion for military spending and pays for it by gutting NOAA, FEMA grants, NIH, and fully eliminating programs that keep the lights on for struggling Americans.
The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...
Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. In FY 2027, NSF will close-out this directorate. Continuing grants that align with Administration priorities, such as in behavioral and cognitive science, and all impacted employees will be transferred to other parts of the agency. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics will operate independently of the directorates and continue to be supported through the R&RA appropriation.
Once again it is time to contract your representatives: The FY27 budget request for NSF (see nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...) would get rid of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.
The administration's budget request would cut research funding for the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency by more than 50%.
It's hard to imagine an external enemy causing more long-term damage to this country.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Human sociality is the story of fragmentation, boundaries, and bridges. I'm looking forward to being part of this symposium in a few weeks, channeling anthropology and @psuliberalarts.bsky.social as we discuss cooperation, collective action, and intergroup dynamics
March 2025? Chaos stopped us in our tracks. March 2026? Heck yes, we're doing the science anyway! 🥂
And how are we doing this work now, without those federal dollars? By being scrappy. We're bringing together private funding and university dollars. We're keeping the period of data collection short. Some of us are even working without salary.
We're studying how changing movement impacts people's bodies - even in the very short term - and in so doing, we're stress-testing a scalable system for measuring this around the globe.
What are we doing? We're measuring how heat and humidity affect heart health and mental health in real time, with pastoralist communities. 🐪 People move their animals differently when things get hot.
A whole year - that's how long losing federal funding delayed a key scientific project of mine. Now I'm en route to Kenya, to finally make it happen ✈️. 1/5
Thrilled to share our latest paper, out now in Science Advances! We explored the development of cooperative behaviors — fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, & honesty — across five societies, culturally contextualizing them & seeing how they correlate. (1/5) www.science.org/doi/full/10....
And if you have 35 minutes, I recommend Wirecutter's Part 1 podcast on lessons learned from the LA fires -- it really puts things in perspective.
Read and listen:
www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...
www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...
3. Check your insurance exclusions. Log into your homeowners or renters policy and check whether it excludes extreme events that can happen locally, like fires, earthquakes, or hail. If it does, set a reminder on your calendar to explore supplemental insurance, to decide if it makes sense for you.
2. Spend 15 minutes documenting what you own. Walk through each room recording video as you open drawers and closets. Photograph important documents like birth certificates. If you can't access your home after an event, you'll need these things when talking to insurance companies or filing claims.
1. Get your neighbors' phone numbers. If you already have a group chat, that's a critical asset. If you don't have one, consider starting one. Neighbors help neighbors in many extreme events - especially important if emergency services can't get to everyone.
Two people holding a package, each wearing yellow safety vests. The photo is focused on their hands as they pass the package. In the background we see other people in vests gathered at a white tent. Adobe Stock image created by AI
Climate preparedness is on a lot of minds this year. Loved new pieces from @nytwirecutter.bsky.social on this & they have lots of recommendations, but it can be hard to decide where to start. Based on my past work, here are three smaller lifts from Wirecutter's list that can make a big difference:
3/3 👉 Can also compare content to what's on the restored cdc webpage (i.e. archive.org). If different, treat with caution unless there's clear scientific evidence explained on the webpage backing up the changes (not pseudoscience hand waving about 'abundant evidence' and 'restoring transparency')
What's in there:
-NOAA funding the same, NSF similar decrease as last year (not big)
-NSF, NASA, and DOE can't change their indirects (would help sustain necessary scientific infrastructure at unis)
-SBIR & STTR will stay alive at NASA & DOE (keeps supporting small businesses in science & tech)
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
We don't just do science together because we have to, we do science together because we *want* to.
Science is about community, and we're serious when we say we're sticking together.
We'll be seeing you in 2026, world! 🥂🧪
#AcademicSky #Science #HigherEd
/end
US-based scientists are stubborn: we're stubbornly staying in community.
We're still showing up. We're turning up in droves at college and institute and department holiday parties, society and org gatherings, and end-of-semester celebrations.
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