Victoria Watson-Zink, PhD

New paper from my lab (first author is Sonia Ghose): www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...

Skin microbiomes of frogs vary among body regions, revealing differences that reflect known patterns of chytrid infection

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly. Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

Professor and Director, Coastal Marine and Sciences Institute University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

UC Davis is recruiting a Professor & Director for the wonderful Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute (CMSI) @ucdmarinescience.bsky.social . A really great community spanning campus and Bodega marine lab.

recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07044

The Promise of American Higher Education No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue

In addition to going through the website, I strongly encourage people to read the letter from Harvard's President, Dr. Garber.

We need more scientific institutions to show this level of courage, no matter the risk. In fact, we need *all* institutions to stand up*.

www.harvard.edu/president/ne...

Yes! That’s them!! 😍 Beautiful animals!!!

This will literally be me in a couple months 😂 Better late than never, I say!

A photograph of an illustration on Kraft card with a Posca paint pen on top of a green and gold embellished spiral bound planner. The illustration shows a blushing crab with claws outstretched and a little heart. The text reads 'I love you more than this!* *Even when I'm crabby'. Art by Emily Jane Foster.

Happy Valentine's Day! 🦀🩷

🐡 #invertebrate #crab #ValentinesDay

These are absolutely stunning!!!! 😍🤩

Calappa, a dome-shaped crab in dark color, seen from the front. Behind its body and in front, hiding its claws and most of its face, are phalaenopsis, moth orchids with roughly circular shape, in lighter colors. Black and white drawing.

Coenobita, a bright-colored hermit crab barely out of a white round shell, looking adorable. Under and around it are leaves of Macodes jewel orchids, dark leaves with white streaks. Behind it are stalks of flower buds of the plant. Black and white drawing.

Paromola, a crab with long legs and spikes all over. The last pair of its legs are small and pointing up like carrying a tray. It's carrying a whole plant of Paphiopedilum slipper orchid in bloom. The four flowers have pitcher-like structures and long ribbony bits that trail very far downwards. Black and white drawing.

Four Allogalathea crabs sitting on the petals of a flower. The crabs are shaped like lobsters with folded tail and black and white stripy bodies. The Vanda orchid flower is mostly white with black spots all over. Black and white drawing.

Happy Crablentine's Day everyone.

Calappa calappa x Phalaenopsis amabilis
Coenobita rugosus x Macodes petola
Paromola cuvieri x Paphiopedilum sanderianum
Allogalathea elegans x Vanda suavis

#Art #SciArt

Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email (klangin@aaas.org) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.

I usually reserve this account for my personal views; but today I want to represent my position as President of @asn-amnat.bsky.social to post a message that will shortly go out to the membership of the American Society of Naturalists from the ASN Executive Council

G. dennerle, photo Chris Lukhaup A purple crab, darker body and legs and bright claws, with bright yellow eyes with pseudopupils. On the "cheeks" are lattice like setae that help keep them wet when they go on land. It's viewed from the front on gravel in an aquarium.

G. notophorum, photo Oliver Mengedoht Close up on the carapace and face of an orange crab. Notably, she has over a dozen translucent BABY CRABS riding on top of the carapace. The baby crabs have eyes. Scale bar 5mm, the mom is maybe 15 mm and the babies about 1 mm

G. malayanum, photo Francesco Tomasinelli An adorable nepenthiphile crab which is mostly dark purple with claws tipped in red. It is peeking out from the rounded mouth of a carnivorous pitcher plant, which also has spiky leaves

G. bau, photo Lars Fehlandt Bright red crab with dark eyes, on a bright green fernlike leaf. Photo in the wild in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

G is for Geosesarma.

Popular pets, some species were/are exploited by the aquarium trade before being described. Each has a small range in SE Asia, traversing freshwater and land. They hatch as minicrabs instead of larvae, and the mom keeps them safe for a few weeks!

#CrabAZ 🦀🧪🦑

📣POSTDOC wanted: We are looking for a marine ecologist to join our #kelp forest team at IMR in Norway 🌊🌿. The position is focused on impacts of harvesting on kelp and kelp forest #biodiversity. Enthusiasm, strong cv and interest in #fieldwork is required.

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

🧪🦠 this thread has the letter I wrote to ASM about their removal of IDEAA websites, highlights of Black and other underrepresented scientists, and lack of information about the 2025 ABRCMS meeting in what looks like anticipatory obedience to the new administration. Subquoted thread has related info.

ASM did a spotlight article on me last February and it has also been taken down as “under review”. Other spotlight articles are still up so not sure how else to interpret this besides the obvious. It feels pretty crappy to have been singled out and I won’t be engaging with them in the future.

Ok this is not ok. ASM actively sought out BMA and its members for Juneteenth and Black History month content for the last 4 years. Actively asked for black labor and then takes it down?! @asm.org this is unacceptable. You should be standing up for marginalized microbiologists not erasing them.

So terrible!!!

This is absolutely unacceptable.

So so happy I could make this dream come true~ ✨☺️🦀✨

This month, fight the horrors with #CrabAZ.

B is for Birgus, the largest land invertebrate alive! It is a specialized hermit crab (they live in the ocean with shells when young). This one is about 15 years old, and will be released after 1 year in captivity - they can reach 60 years!

🦀🦑🧪

Black people have never needed a government to recognize our traditions and beliefs. #BlackHistoryMonth will proceed as planned.

Apparently all the PhD researchers holding prestigious NSF-funded research fellowships are having their salaries withheld until some unspecified time when the leadership figures out how to eliminate any grant funding that doesn’t align with the president’s political ideology.

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

The ACM$ is still down, and postdocs continue to receive cancelation notices for requests for funding.

NSF has seemingly pushed through with their freeze on fund disbursement, even in spite of the court’s challenge and subsequent “unfreeze” announced yesterday.

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled

I had tinnitus, specifically pulsatile (so I could hear my heartbeat in my ears), and it turns out mine was caused by undiagnosed congenital hydrocephalus, which led to elevated intracranial pressures. Just got through with brain surgery #4 and it’s gone now!

Deleted, reposting to clarify: the NSF statement does not define "DEIA", I haven't used that term in the proposal for my current NSF project. I could guess what it means, but that's not my job. I would need to know what specific activities I'm not allowed to do before I change any plans.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

SHARE WIDELY.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights.

You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one.

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