Scott Rich, Ph.D.

A reminder: Black Mirror concepts are meant as warnings, NOT AS SUGGESTIONS! 🤦‍♂️

Ummm… is this good news?!??

Also (minus the one obviously dated bit) this exchange lives rent free in my head:

youtu.be/uqyDP_6yFFM?...

Life in #AcademicSky in a nutshell. Futurama science for the win, always.

No easy answers 😖😠😡

Sincere question about this (purposefully?) confusing policy: as a #NewPI am I better off stalling some grant resubmissions until this stabilizes? Are the funding rates this year going to be so low that it isn’t worth it?

#AcademicSky #NeuroSkyence

Not what I want to read about my alma mater.

As researchers we need to do better not only making the broad argument for our importance, but the SPECIFIC one that higher education needs us.

E.G., future doctors need exposure to biomedical research as undergrads, etc…

When I begrudgingly left 🇨🇦 for my (wonderful!) TT job, one way I justified the decision was how challenging it was to get CIHR funding.

Now, I think most US neuroscientists would kill for a 15% funding rate, even with all the caveats considered…

#Neuroskyence #CompNeuroSky #NewPI

H- and m-channel overexpression promotes seizure-like events by impairing the ability of inhibitory neurons to process correlated inputs Author summary How a vast array of insults to the healthy brain can all lead to the same pathological endpoint of seizure remains one of the most perplexing questions in epilepsy research. Historicall...

A quick update from inside my new Dad bunker: the final paper from my postdoc at @kbi-uhn.bsky.social @kcnhub.bsky.social is officially published 😀

We worked on this computational model of seizure-like events for 5+ years and it yielded some fascinating insights!

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Will keep posting this to make sure we don’t collectively jinx something good.

Again…

I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Eve Marder: "The process of turning a word model into a formal mathematical model invariably forces the experimentalist to confront his or her hidden assumptions."

The point isn’t to capture all the richness, it’s to put your money where your mouth is.

So if this is implemented essentially all animal studies will require a computational component?

Sad to be missing CNS*2025, especially in such an amazing location… but the new little one at home (let alone Mom!) wouldn’t be pleased with Dad jaunting around Florence just yet 😉😀😂

As promised, some belated big news 😀😀😀

Doing this because it’s fun.

Notes:
1) I will fight any Star Wars fan to the death about TLJ being the best Star Wars thing outside of the original trilogy. Disney failed by not just letting Rian Johnson cook.
2) Wish I could’ve put “The Room” on here. IYKYK.

More to come later after I deal with some other more pressing (and exciting!) life events 😉

I interrupt your doomscrolling for some happier news: my lab’s first paper is on bioRxiv!!!

This study is our initial foray into describing the effects of time-varying cholinergic neuromodulation on neuronal microcircuit dynamics.

#NewPI #neuroskyence #compneurosky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New theory: Our current science hellscape is because the wrong person thought “Twisters” was real and we were all pulling crazy ideas out of thin air chasing “big piles of grant money.”

Also: That movie is horrible.

An old "Jonathan the Husky" playing a bass guitar

Dear @uconn.bsky.social:

I love our dear mascot Jonathan just like all good Huskies do. But this? This is NIGHTMARE FUEL.

A heck of a big swing as the lead image for our monthly magazine, hahahaha.

magazine.uconn.edu/2025/06/05/b...

Dear @cnn.com:

Doug Ford is not a “top Canadian official.” He’s the Premier of Ontario. That’s analogous to the Governor of California (largest state -> largest province).

Say what you will about the man (and us Canadians have a lot to say!) but stop implying this is just some middling bureaucrat.

First of two lingering postdoc papers officially accepted for publication 😀😀😀

The view of the pond from my porch ;)

Reviewing papers here >>>
reviewing papers in the office.

“No new awards” (which I’ve seen multiple times as a likely consequence of these cuts) means every #NewPI searching for funding—in an already historically challenging environment—basically needs to hit the lottery to create a self-sufficient lab.

An iPad with a VERY cracked screen

It’s a small point of pride that I made it >15 years into the era of smart devices without the dreaded broken screen. But man, my first one was a doozy!

RIP iPad… thank goodness you were aging and replacing you was already on the to-do list 😮‍💨😅😂

YouTube video by The Daily Show Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation | The Daily Show

#AcademicSky and #NeuroSky, how did we miss these heroes on @thedailyshow.com with @jordanklepper.bsky.social shouting out cuts to neuroscience research?!?!

We need to keep attacks on science in the media's focus anyway we can... these future neuroscientists depend on it!

youtu.be/ePbMNq8m7Jw?...

Just over a year into my celiac diagnosis, can confirm. The number of “gluten free options” I’m offered that are just sugar bombs shaped like something else is depressing.

Amidst **gestures at everything**, a victory that needs celebrating: my lab has officially received its first grant from UConn's Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences!

A small step forward, but a milestone for a #NewPI nonetheless 😀