Dr. Amy Burgin

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying!

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

I'm recruiting via ISU's new EPSCOR Grad Training Program! If you want to write an NSF GRFP this Fall and come to ISU, let's connect. Students who get an Honorable Mention this year (or did in the last 3 years) are eligible. Program funding rates are same as GRFP!
Apply: etap.nsf.gov/award/8257/o...

Thanks for attending!

We love the Women Advancing River Research webinar series! Today, we’re learning about interdisciplinary collaboration to understand non-perennial streams with @margaretzimmer.bsky.social and @burginam.bsky.social.

There are even some beautiful maps for #gischat!

👩🏻‍🔬🌊🧪

Looking forward to talking non-perennial streams with MZ tomorrow! She'll do an overview of all of the great synthesis work in the NPS literature in the last ~5 years, and I'll do a deep dive on the organization of the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS) project! Join us!

Congrats to Matt & Co on being awarded an NSF EGFP Grant!

The program titled, "Training the next Generation of Biologists to Drive Basic Discovery and Build the Bioeconomy" will run at ISU for 3 years and can accept 10 students per year. If you got an Honorable Mention NSF GRFP, you're eligible!

Streams have become drier in a warming climate.

7/17, #WARR talks on
intermittent streams + collaborative science teams,
Dr. Margaret Zimmer @margaretzimmer.bsky.social
Dr. Amy Burgin @burginam.bsky.social

Register: psu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@waterbarnes.bsky.social @devonkerins.bsky.social

The new leadership cancelled planned events for NSF’s 75th anniversary and tried to prevent staff from even taking a group photo to celebrate the landmark. These are the faces of the hardworking employees they’ve been treating as disposable.

NSF, we appreciate you even if your own leaders don’t ❤️

announcement for the SSE Sponsored Workshop "Avoiding Bias When Writing Tenure and Promotion Leters"

Hey folks going to #evol2025 in Athens. The SSE #DEI committee is sponsoring a workshop on how to avoid bias in writing T&P letters. Registration is required and the workshop is open to all career stages! Please share and help spread the word @sse-evolution.bsky.social @evolmtg.bsky.social

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Corpse Flower bloom

Sign explaining Stink Floyd the Corpse Flower.

Line to smell the stench at Reiman Gardens

Partying like Rock Stars with Stink Floyd—the Corpse Flower that only blooms every 5-7 years! Huge line to smell the stench at Reiman Gardens. Can confirm, it smells…like a dumpster, maybe? You can check it out tomorrow (Sunday) but after that it’ll be a few years.

Racist and sexist roots in the cancellation of NSF grants under Trump:

Grants with female PIs canceled 2x more than men
Grants with Black PIs canceled 4x over White PIs
Grants with Hispanic PIs canceled 2x over White PIs
Grants with PIs with disabilities canceled 2x more than without

Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate Many worry about retribution. But for others, speaking out is worth the risk

Great article with lots of perspectives from scientists who are scared to speak out — and other scientists who are scared of what will happen if they don't. Trump & Musk & Kennedy are devastating U.S. research and setting progress back decades
www.science.org/content/arti... on @science.org

ISU EEOB Grad Student organization prairie seed mix packet and plants.

ISU EEOB Grad Student Native Plant fundraiser.

This week’s bright spot was the lovely native plant sale fundraiser by the ISU EEOB Grad Students. I got a great assortment to give my Mom for Mother’s Day, including a prairie seed packet!

The U of MN reports it has lost 70 federal grants, totalling more than $22,000,000 grants that are primarily located in the biomedical, environmental, and energy and natural resources work.

The National Science Foundation benefits the State of Iowa through funding over $74M (FY'23) in research, education, and investment in business partnerships. This equates to jobs, degrees, new knowledge, and a skilled workforce for STEM careers. Fact sheets by state: new.nsf.gov/about/fact-s...

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

🧪 Though a doubling of NSF's budget might seem far-fetched, that's exactly what Congress said what's needed to maintain national competitiveness in science & tech.

From the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022:

Meeting the Moment Together We are returning from the AERA Annual Meeting in Denver reinvigorated and with a deep appreciation for all that scholars and higher education leaders are holding in this moment. Rapid shifts in fed...

FYI “Spencer Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation and Kapor Foundation are providing quick turnaround grants of up to $25k for education scholars impacted by the abrupt NSF grant cancellations.” www.spencer.org/news/meeting...

SaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF.

The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation.

Join: www.savensf.com

Amid DOGE-induced turmoil, National Science Foundation in crisis The $9 billion agency, which exists solely to fund researchers, projects and facilities outside its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters, is hitting reverse on its mission.

The Washington Post offers its own survey of the damage being done to the National Science Foundation. “It’s sort of cutting off the future,” said @alondra.bsky.social 3/10
wapo.st/3GBQ5Pa

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 talked to Nature about the latest development at NSF, which is a five-alarm fire for American science. The scale of immediate impact is massive. We narrowly escaped this affecting @viralemergence.org for now, but will have to shut down in a few months if this stays.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Day by day, how Trump is roiling science and health STAT is tracking, day by day, what's happened in the words of science and health during the first months of the Trump administration.

A timeline of science/health-relevant news over Trump's first 100 days. Good link to bookmark. 🧪
www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/t...
#science #health #medicine

Critically, Republicans have terminated ~800 NIH grants over 8 weeks. But that's only half the story.

*Republicans have also cancelled nearly 1,000 NSF grants in 8 *days*.

The work continues. Report your terminated NSF grant here:

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

My #NSFStories are far from unique. NSF is the scientific engine that makes the US research enterprise the envy of the world. We need NSF—for the discoveries it enables and the careers it builds.

#WithoutNSF I wouldn’t be a scientist.
- I got in an NSF REU Program and learned about grad school.
- I did my PhD funded by 2 different NSF grants.
- As a postdoc, I was an NSF RCN participant, building my network.
- I got tenure with an NSF RAPID grant.
- I got promoted with an NSF EPSCoR grant.

Why is the U.S. National Science Foundation important?

Please share your stories!

Use the hashtags #WithoutNSF or #WithoutScience

I’m deeply honored for this recognition by my scientific ‘home’. It’s easy to want to give back to a Society that centers student mentoring, collaboration, and high-quality science to understand and promote the importance of freshwater ecosystems. Check out an SFS meeting—it’s one of a kind!

Exclusive: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy “I have done all I can,” says Sethuraman Panchanathan, a Trump appointee who has led agency since 2020

There is a great deal to be concerned about in the federal science sphere right now. This resignation adds to those concerns, largely because we have no idea who might be take the Director’s place, and because it follows the Chief Scientist’s announced departure. www.science.org/content/arti...