I saw you guys when I was driving past! How cool!!

Definitely! There is a Reddit community for REU applications as well, which I credit a lot of my past REU acceptance towards - I did about thirty personal statement swaps with other students, to edit and give suggestions on each other's essays. Great experience.

www.reddit.com/r/GRFPApps/ is the community if anyone is curious.

I saw folks on Reddit saying that last year's reviews weren't posted until October, but there is also chatter about how in years prior, reviews have been posted only about two weeks later. When this cycle's solicitation was released, there was a lot of panic about needing reviews for reapplications.

was told to put this #nsf #GRFP award winners data. baseline was 2019-2024, removed 2025 for obvious reasons

Subfield distributions are really changing, I think it's going unnoticed because total awards have gone up so much (1500 in 2025, 2600 now).

Ecology has proportionally gown down since last year, even though numbers are up.

Check out which subfields have experienced the most change from last year (a fellow GRFP applicant put this together, they don't have Bluesky and asked me to post).

There's definitely a very active GRFP applicant community on Reddit!

I've been following it for the past year and it's really interesting to see discussions on solicitation wording, historical patterns in timing and funding priorities, speculations about what fields will be favored, and etc.

Huge congratulations to all of the GRFP awardees!🎉

I didn't get the fellowship, but I look forward to reviews in the coming months (and revamping my proposal for the next cycle!).

Here's links to GRFP awards and honorable mentions! (courtesy of Reddit user r/NewtonsThirdEvilEx, who downloaded and posted them online before research.gov crashed from GRFP-related traffic)

Awards: drive.google.com/file/d/1jgby...

Honorable mentions:
drive.google.com/file/d/1ok7Z...

NSF #GRFP results are out! This cycle, 486 of the 2600 awards are in the Life Sciences.

There's been a lot of chatter online about possible biases this cycle against Life Sciences applicants, especially with the wave of proposals returned without review in February.

For each species dataset, an alignment of 10 random leaf outlines including 100 pseudo-landmarks extracted from each species dataset. The tip of each leaf is marked with an orange circle, and the base of each leaf is marked with a blue circle. The vertical black line next to each leaf represents a 1 cm scale bar. For each species dataset, the total dataset mean leaf is represented by a black outline, which is superimposed onto the colored species mean leaf. Image credit: Hightower et al., 2026

Procrustean pseudo-landmark methods in Python to measure massive quantities of leaf shape data

New in #AppsPlantSci by Hightower et al

doi.org/10.1002/aps3... @puffballove.bsky.social @andreacase.bsky.social @husbandslab.bsky.social @emjo.bsky.social @zoemig.bsky.social #botany #morphometrics

Square graphic with a light beige background featuring a faint world map. At the top, large orange script text reads “BSA Travel Awards.” Below, in orange text: “Deadline March 15th,” followed by bullet points listing Developing Nations, Professional, and Students and PostDoc. Beneath that, “Deadline April 1st” lists Sectional Travel Awards. A small airplane graphic with a dotted flight path appears on the left. A QR code is shown in the lower left corner. The Botany 2026 logo (August 1–5, Tucson, Arizona) and the Botanical Society of America logo appear at the bottom.

Presenting at #Botany2026 in Tucson? Apply for a BSA Travel Award!

March 15 Deadline: Developing Nations, Professional, and Students & PostDocs Travel Awards

April 1 Deadline: Sectional Student Travel Awards

Applicants must be current BSA members.

Learn more & apply: botany.org/home/awards....

So excited for my first AGU!

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2026 Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2026 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

Its that time again - the list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2026 is live!
PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/2XTHBP6CZGEn...
Prospective students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Please share! 🧪

Floral shape and color impact heat accumulation and thermal stability of the floral microenvironment in a subalpine meadow Premise The floral thermal microenvironment impacts plant reproduction through its effects on gametophyte performance and plant–pollinator interactions. Color and shape are axes of floral variation ...

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Really exciting!

🍃New research shows that leaf traits and floral resources are closely linked, primarily determined by environmental selection, with pollinators playing a secondary role. These findings emphasise the interconnectedness of vegetative and reproductive traits in plant strategies.🌼 buff.ly/ueQtHkj

Not to demonize AI overall- I'm a firm believer that numerical models have a strong place in scientific research (i.e., weather and climate modeling). LLMs though, I can't seem to find any excuses for.

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

Frequent LLM use degrades cognitive ability. This is a huge part of why I don't use them in my daily life (not to mention the environmental implications). I'm glad to see research backing up the rhetoric that many of us have had from day one.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

I'm glad we are discussing this- I wondered the same thing. Thanks Bluesky community for the clarity! :D

the U.S. Capitol building on an overcast day, looking ominous

URGENT! Contact your senators today to advocate to fund science agencies and programs!

The Senate Appropriations Committee & its subcommittees are writing appropriation bills for the federal FY26 budget now.

Here's how you can help: esa.org/esablog/2025...

I credit my career path to being a 2015 PLANTS grant recipient and have volunteered as a mentor almost every year since. I cannot imagine BSA or the field of botany without it. Please consider donating to the BSA Human Diversity Fund to support future generations: crm.botany.org/makeadonation

Lovely ribbon made by @sugarmaplesap.bsky.social in celebration of my recent research presentation! 🌻 I absolutely love the community of plant people here at MSU 🫶

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

I don't even know what to say to this. I hoped we were through the worst of it (REU program cancellations had even slowed down for a while, until this week), but I guess not. What a shame.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Always a fun time in the Kaproth Lab 🌱

Recently published some of my early ultraviolet reflectance photography in the River Whale Review, MSU Mankato's undergraduate creative and literary journal!
riverwhalereview.com/submitter/ka...

🚨 March 2025 #Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record...

This was 1,290,000 km² below the 1981-2010 average. March ice extent is decreasing at about 2.46% per decade. Data: @nsidc.bsky.social (nsidc.org/data/seaice_...)

Welcome to Physiologia Plantarum's official Bluesky profile!
As an international journal dedicated to advancing plant science, we're excited to connect with our community here.

Expect the latest research highlights, plant biology insights, and upcoming publication updates. Stay tuned for more!

Whoa! How sad :(