Our team had a strong presence at #URES26! Congratulations to Alisa Samakhval, Rehonoma Jahin, Chloe Kilroy, and Maddie Juarez for their excellent posters and presentations! And congrats again to Maddie for the Outstanding Undergraduate Research award! #NSFfunded #BullyBlockerLab
Celebrating recent research victories with the amazing Maddie Juarez, Manuel Sandoval, Arya Aftab, and Satyaki Sikdar!
Exited to share that our paper on Cyberbullying Networks was recently accepted at the 2026 CySoc @ ICWSM! In this paper, we applied network science principles and and tools to analyze cyberbullying interactions on Instagram. #BullyBlockerLab #NSFfunded @loyolachicago.bsky.social
Maddie Juarez, a Computer Science undergraduate at @loyolachicago.bsky.social and a member of the #BullyBlockerLab, was just awarded the @NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
Maddie joined the lab on her first day as an undergraduate student in August 2022 and has since co-authored 4 research papers!
Manny Sandoval, one of our amazing PhD research assistants in the #BullyBlockerLab, received the Outstanding Research Poster Award at LUC's 2026 Graduate School Interdisciplinary Research Symposium! Si Se Puede, Manny!! #NSFfunded @loyolachicago.bsky.social
We just learned that Maddie Juarez, a research assistant in the #BullyBlockerLab, has received the 2026 Loyola Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award! Congrats, Maddie! (In the picture, she appears with Manuel Sandoval, a PhD student in the lab and a great co-mentor to Maddie). #NSFfunded
Our paper "From Moderation to Mediation: Can LLMs Serve as Mediators in Online Flame Wars?", co-authored by D. Li, A. Alnaibari, A. Bisharat, M. Sandoval, D. Hall, Y. Silva, and H. Liu, has been accepted in the 30th Pacific-Asia Conf on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining #BullyBlockerLab #NSFfunded
Our submission "Cyberbullying Interaction Networks on Instagram" (S. Sikdar, M. Sandoval, T. Hales, C. Kilroy, M. Juarez, T. Rosario, J. Rosendo, D. Hall, and Y. Silva) has been accepted as a contributed talk at @netsciconf.bsky.social (NetSci26)! #BullyBlockerLab #NSFfunded
Ethan Gilmore and Dylan Young represented the #BullyBlocker team at the @spspnews.bsky.social Conference in Chicago this week! It was great sharing some time with our amazing ASU/Cornell collaborators! #NSFfunded
Interested in a fully funded PhD position applying AI, Network Science, and Data Analytics to address problems of high social relevance? Send us your application by January 31!
This position is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Google, and @loyolachicago.bsky.social.
This is outstanding! Keep up the good work, Kate!
The AAUP & @aft.org are fighting back to remind our elected leaders that higher education & public health research are transformative public goods.
We must keep life-saving NIH research fully funded & stop the Trump admin’s devastating funding cuts that are halting medical breakthroughs.
Another day testing the limits of resilience.
The Alexandria NSF building was designed for the NSF merit review process (gold standard), complete with a floor devoted to panels.
Now we aren’t allowed to have in person panels.
The loss of US science leadership will haunt this country for decades.
"This Court rules that the challenged directives . . . are arbitrary and capricious."
"They are of no force and effect."
"They are illegal and so are each of the terminations before this Court"
After ruling, with anger in his voice, Judge Young:
"This represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out. And I do so."
$1 Million in Linked NSF Grants to Support the BullyBlocker Project!
Our proposal SaTC: CORE: Toward Well-being by Design in Social Media has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program. @loyolachicago.bsky.social #NSFfunded
As a science community, we must stand united. As we fight for illegally terminated #NSF & #NIH grants I see MANY stand together but I also see a problematic trend; some arguing my work has nothing to do with DEI. This only validates the false narrative that DEI is bad. Our unity is our power. LFG 🙌🏼💪🏼
If a foreign adversary snuck into our Federal budget and cut science research and education the way we’re cutting it ourselves — strategically undermining America’s long-term health, wealth, and security — we would likely consider it an act of war.
Just like we need women in STEM and "Girls Who Code", we need “Men Who Nurse” and “Guys Who Teach,” pipeline programs that can offer boys pathways forward in female-typed fields. @reshmasaujani.bsky.social
time.com/7286184/worr...
Our best chance to stop this thing is in the House.
Rs are trying to pass it though Budget tonight, through Rules Wednesday, and then through the full chamber on Friday.
It would kick millions off Medicaid and take food assistance away from households with kids as young as 7. Please help stop it.
3. UPDATED: What types of awards are being terminated? Awards that are not aligned with program goals or agency priorities have been terminated, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), environmental justice, and misinformation/disinformation.
🧪 National Science Foundation update alert ⚠️⚠️
NSF just made a **lot** of updates to its "priorities" page.
It's mixed news. Some good. Some bad.
❌ Not welcome: NSF is now also terminating "environmental justice" awards.
The highlighted text here is new: www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...
1/8... 🧵
At the end of this summer, the future of U.S. science and research will be decided.
From weather alerts to cancer breakthroughs, science shapes every part of our lives.
We need everyone in this fight.
The Summer Fight for Science starts now. Are you in?
The fight starts here: bit.ly/4ddiuqU
Job ad. We’re hiring! Seeking a full-time Program Director to lead two national STEM mentorship programs. Fully remote, impact-driven role creating an inclusive space in higher ed for students from underserved communities. Learn more here: www.cientificolatino.com/job
🚨 We’re hiring! Científico Latino, Inc. is looking for a Program Director to lead two national STEM mentorship programs. Fully remote, impact-driven role in higher ed 🎓👩🔬
📌 Apply: cientificolatino.com/job
💼 Know someone? Send it their way!
👏👏 Bravo to @alondra.bsky.social for her *public* resignation from the National Science Board and Library of Congress!!
“The aim of my resignation is to break free of powers that seek to limit knowledge and silence voice.”
Powerful piece. Recommend reading all the way through. But also… 1/3
I joined 112 of my House Democratic colleagues to oppose the Trump administration's cuts to National Science Foundation (NSF) grants.
This will not only disrupt ongoing research, but derail global competition in science and technology. The President needs to reinstate these funds.
Call for Resignation of NSF Chief Management Officer A Statement from the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 This week the NSF Chief Management Officer has completely eliminated the Division of Excellence for Equity in STEM (EES), cut 84 Senior Executive Service positions, and announced the imminent elimination of almost 300 temporary employees. These actions make it clear that the Chief Management Officer has no appreciation for the complexities of the NSF. The actions taken by the CMO clearly violate federal law. Many of the functions of the EES division are required by federal statute. The Administration, and CMO Cheatham, have no legal authority to arbitrarily cancel programs that Congress authorized and funded. CMO Cheatham already has a record of illegal action at the behest of the Administration. In February, the court ruled that the firing of probationary employees, done under CMO Cheatham’s leadership, was illegal. Beyond his willingness to break the law, CMO Cheatham’s duplicitous cruelty and callous disregard for the people whose livelihoods are being jeopardized reveal a fundamental unfitness for any role overseeing the lives and work of others. CMO Cheatham is clearly more interested in appeasing the Administration than in doing the work directed and funded by Congress. NSF employees, including those represented by AFGE Local 3403, have lost confidence, faith and trust in Chief Management Officer Cheatham’s ability to perform his duties. We call for his immediate resignation so that the Agency can return to its apolitical focus on discovery, education, and entrepreneurship.
🧪 The union for NSF employees just called on Micah Cheatham, NSF's chief management officer, to resign:
"Beyond his willingness to break the law, CMO Cheatham’s duplicitous cruelty and callous disregard for the people whose livelihoods are being jeopardized reveal a fundamental unfitness."
A victory for the federal scientific workforce! We could not stand by while this irreparable harm continues at NSF, NOAA and all our scientific agencies.
TODAY the judge granted our request to temporarily HALT the mass firings at federal agencies under Trump’s Executive Order.
Bears repeating that Congress has not passed a budget or any other legislation that has asked the NSF to do this downsizing, they're dismantling the agency in anticipation of cuts that as of yet have no basis in law
Dorks, it’s time to throw sand in the gears.
They want us to stop teaching, we will teach in the streets.
They want us to stop our research, we will use archival data.
They want to send us back to the dark ages, we will be a light.
We will not lay down and take this.
