Dr. Austin M. Garner

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons:
1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress
2) Write to your congressional reps.
3) Write to grfp@nsf.gov to request re-consideration;

Habitat and complex life cycles promote morphological diversity in salamander limb bones We examined the external shape and cross-sectional morphology of limb bones in 133 salamander species spanning the ecological and phylogenetic breadth of Caudata. We find that adaptations for aquatic...

Second PhD paper is out! We find: 1) aquatic and terrestrial salamanders have different limb bone adaptations, 2) complex life cycles promote different traits, 3) decoupling of external and internal bone traits increase diversity.

Thread (1/8) and FREE link below! 🦎🧪

doi.org/10.1111/joa....

A plea from an editor:

postdocs & grad students who want to review manuscripts, please (!) have an online presence with your current email. I try to solicit reviews from ECRs, but we all move a lot, and it's hard to know if we'll be able to reach you at the email address on your last paper 🧪🌍

Proud mentor here!! @benjamin-wasiljew.bsky.social is doing great work in the lab

As an ICB Assistant Editor, we would love to have you review for us! We had some great symposia this year!

Had lots of fun delivering the @sicb-dcb-dvm.bsky.social Carl Gans award lecture yesterday at @sicb.bsky.social #SICB2026! Grateful to have the support of so many incredible colleagues in comparative biomechanics.

Congrats to @armanafzadeh.bsky.social! Your talk was amazing and your work insanely cool!

Conference schedule graphic for SICB 2026 (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology) held January 3-7 in Portland, Oregon. The image shows the Garner Lab for Animal Morphology & Mechanics logo featuring a gear with a sea urchin, lizard, wave, and leaf inside it, alongside the conference banner with Portland skyline. Below are seven presentation listings with gecko, anole, and sea urchin silhouettes: Sunday 8 AM, B114 - Dr. Benjamin Wasiljew on anole jumping performance; Sunday P1-167 - Nathan Bailey on sea urchin tube feet mechanics under hyposalinity; Monday P2-224 - Dr. Benjamin Wasiljew on gecko claw morphology; Tuesday P3-015 - Andrew Moura on sea urchin tube foot attachment on rough surfaces; Tuesday P3-116 - Sadie Heidemann on gecko tail role in locomotion; Tuesday P3-184 - Aaliyah Roberts on setal field configuration in natural and urban populations of anoles; Tuesday P3-190 - Sarah Juan on regional variation in gecko adhesive microstructures.

The Garner Lab for Animal Morphology & Mechanics (GLAMM) is in full force at #SICB2026! Check out some of our work studying adhesion and locomotion in geckos, anoles, and sea urchins @sicb.bsky.social @sicb-dcb-dvm.bsky.social

The countdown begins… ⏰
Sunday at #SICB2026 is already STACKED!

🗂️ Whether you’ve built your itinerary or you’re still deciding, we’ve got you covered with these at-a-glance schedules.

👉 DCB & DVM folks: tag us so we can hype your talks and posters!

More at-a-glance posts coming soon 👀

See you and Kyle there!!

Off to #SICB2026! Come check out the work from my lab:

Sun at 11am (202)- My talk about the evolution of amphibian sperm

Tues poster session - two posters about green frog sperm performance in egg water presented by my awesome students!

See you there! 🐸 ⚫〰️

If you're at #SICB2026 , be sure to talk with just a few of ICB's assistant eds, associate eds, & or E.I.C. Ulrike Muller .
Here are a few attending SICB
@agarner.bsky.social
@kassthefish.bsky.social
@mayerllab.bsky.social
@ajnarivera.bsky.social
& more!
& read issues
academic.oup.com/icb

Happy holidays from me and Miko!

Studying animal behavior in the field is often hindered by environmental variability and the high cost or inaccessibility of monitoring equipment. This symposium will highlight the development and application of low-cost, open-source sensing technologies—such as Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, and 3D-printable tools—for automated environmental data collection in both lab and field settings. By bringing together interdisciplinary researchers, we aim to explore how these tools can increase accessibility, enhance replicability, and support large-scale behavioral and ecological studies. Discussions will emphasize their role in monitoring environmental change and biodiversity, as well as their potential to bridge engineering-focused and field-based approaches within the SICB community.

Not long now til #SICB 's annual meeting!

sicb.org/events/upcom...

If you're meeting us there, be sure to attend

S06: #Behavioral and #environmental monitoring with #open-source and low-cost tools.
Organized by:
Yash Sondhi & Brett Seymoure & Thomas Franzem

#biology #academia #science

The new policy also shortens rejection feedback from a page to 3-5 sentences. This will particularly hurt early-career researchers who benefit from detailed guidance to improve proposals. We can't cultivate the next generation of researchers by eliminating the mentorship embedded in thorough review.

🧵 NSF is reducing external review requirements and eliminating routine expert panels, citing staff shortages that this administration implemented. This change expands program officer authority. But the solution to flawed accountability isn't less public accountability.

In preparation for this upcoming panel at @sicb.bsky.social, I filmed an Editing 101 for scientists looking to make longer form science outreach videos using Premiere Pro. You can check it out here! youtu.be/pBLuY9ScjEI

Ooh!! How cool! So excited!!

@sicb.bsky.social’s Public Affairs Committee is running their Student Journalism program again this year and is hosting a cool multimedia science communication workshop with panelists @bigbiology.bsky.social, Sönke Johnsen, @oceanfilly.bsky.social, and @virginiagewin.bsky.social!!

#SICB _ MONDAY JOB ALERT!!

The Garner Lab for #Animal #Morphology & #Mechanics is looking to recruit an MS student for Fall 2026 to study the functional #morphology and #biomechanics of #adhesion, friction & more.
Interested? Reach out to @agarner.bsky.social

garnera@fau.edu

I'll also be looking to recruit an MS student to study the functional morphology and biomechanics of adhesion, friction, and/or locomotion in sea urchins, geckos, or anoles! Please share! @sicb-dcb-dvm.bsky.social @sicb.bsky.social

Logo for the Garner Lab for Animal Morphology & Mechanics which includes a crashing wave, a sea urchin, a leaf, and gecko above the logo for Florida Atlantic University which features a burrowing owl graphic. The two logos are surrounded by a day gecko, a green sea urchin, and a brown anole lizard.

I'm excited to announce that my lab is moving to the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University in January next year! Can't wait to join amazing new colleagues and be able to run outside year round to work with lizards on campus and sea urchins at the FAU Marine Lab!

Open Source, Open Science: New App Leads Data Reproducibility Open-source app "Paleopal" facilitates replication and sharing of information among researchers using data science tools to create workflows.

@syracuseu.bsky.social News just published a short piece about a new Shiny-based open-source webapp that I'm working on that is called paleopal!

It's still very much a work-in-progress, but you can check out a working prototype here: williamgearty.com/paleopal/.

news.syr.edu/2025/10/02/o...

We've already got hundreds of students and mentors here, sharing how the sudden policy change has derailed plans. We're looking at formally "delivering" results to NSF leadership tomorrow, please do keep sharing and spreading the word: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

The NSF GRFP is one of ever fewer multi-year funding opportunities for graduate students pursuing basic research. Please sign and share this petition to urge NSF to adjust or reverse their recent policy changes to the GRFP!!

Love this!

The Dept. of BioSciences at #RiceUniversity, in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a preferred focus on organismal responses to environmental change. Please RT!

Apply: apply.interfolio.com/173889

Union: Austerity threatens SUNY ESF’s mission. NY can’t afford to lose it (Guest Opinion) "If SUNY’s approach continues, ESF will have fewer programs, fewer students, fewer partnerships and generate fewer jobs in Syracuse and across the state," write UUP leaders.

Third, read here to learn more about what we are facing: www.syracuse.com/opinion/2025...

Gov. Hochul: Please invest in the future of SUNY ESF! Please send this e-letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul urging her to support an $10 million increase to SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which is needed to financially stabilize this vital ...

Second: send a letter to the governor of NY actionnetwork.org/letters/gov-...

First: share ALL posts that you see about this by ESF faculty, staff, and students. The more attention we can receive, the better. We really need media coverage! This can be hard sometime since we are such a small campus community.