David Wickell

Super excited about this review/new data preprint on aquatic plant photosynthetic methods - turns out its *hard* to measure stuff underwater! Led by awesome grad in the lab @ellliieee.bsky.social with postdoc @wickellomics.bsky.social and some brilliant people at LiCor! 💧🌿

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

GRFP call is out: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... Deadlines pushed back to Nov.

As we all eagerly (anxiously?) await NSF's release of the 2026 GRFP solicitation, please consider signing up as a mentor for BSA's GRFP workshop. We especially need more senior mentors (PIs, postdocs, and research scientists)!

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

The first step in generating public support for science is telling people what the heck we're doing and why it matters! If you are a researcher who benefits from federal funding, please consider writing a letter to your local paper: blogs.cornell.edu/asap/events-...

Happy to contribute!

The reviews are in, this was the best Quillwort Conference ever! Thanks so much to our speakers:
Gemma Milly
Lisa George
David Wickell @wickellomics.bsky.social
Megan Nibbelink @megantheebotanist.bsky.social
Jacob Suissa
John Evans

NSF fact sheet

The National Science Foundation benefits communities in every state.

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Firings happening right now at the NSF.

I absolutely love my new 'Isoetes nerd' mug courtesy of the multi-talented, and incredibly thoughtful @ellliieee.bsky.social.

This was my experience on a recent panel. No change to how proposals were evaluated.

📣Now Free Access: Low internal air space in plants with crassulacean acid metabolism may be an anatomical spandrel
Get the Paper:

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.

This is shameful and completely unnecessary.

NSF PRFB fellows: talk to your POs and transfer the remaining year’s balance of salary and research funds by 5pm today!! Dm me if you want to join the prfb slack where fellows are sharing info with each other #nsf #nsfprfb

For the record this doesn't appear to be a blanket cancel of all panels (yet).

An image of the icon for Mesquite, a modular system for evolutionary analysis (http://www.mesquiteproject.org)

We are working on a major update to Mesquite, version 4! We welcome any suggestions for features or fixes. A major emphasis will be phylogenomic data. We may not have time for more big features, but please suggest small features for data maintenance or editing that could make your lives easier.

SEM images of Isoetes megaspores (Larsén et al. 2025)

Lots of incredible SEM images of Isoetes megaspores in this preprint by Larsén et al. mapping spore ornamentation and surface structure onto the quillwort phylogeny (not my work, but I'm glad someone's doing it!): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Relics of interspecific hybridization retained in the genome of a drought-adapted peanut cultivar The genome sequence for the drought tolerant peanut variety

Last week we published a peanut genome that was much more complex than it originally appeared.

A 🧵 about 🥜 genomes and what we found ...

Find the article as a ‘featured’ genome report in G3: academic.oup.com/g3journal/ar....

NSF makes you say who you got conflicts (coauthored) with. We (really just Jordan Matelsky) just built you a tool for that. Literally one click: bib.experiments.kordinglab.com/nsf-coa

A nice starter pack for society journals in ecology and evolution go.bsky.app/VGQ2eYJ

A shoot apical meristem with all cell outlines clearly visible, and a lot of hair cells surrounding the tip

Shoot apical meristem of my "pin"📌 Mimulus mutant, with plasma membranes of cells fluorescently labeled. #MicroscopyMonday #MeristemMonday #MimulusPropaganda

Unique biogenesis and kinetics of hornwort Rubiscos revealed by synthetic biology systems Hornworts are non-vascular land plants, which diverged from vascular plants approximately 500 million years ago, and yet the CO2 fixing enzyme (Rubisco) in hornworts has received little prior attentio...

If you need a distraction on the Election Day, you can read our latest paper out in Molecular Plant - we found that #hornwort #Rubisco is wicked!! Absolutely fun collaboration with Zhen Guo Oh and Laura Gunn at Cornell Plant Bio www.cell.com/molecular-pl...

A flyer for the next Polyploidy Webinar on November 6, 2024, at 11AM Pacific Time. It includes photos of the two presenters and their presentation titles. Sylvia Kinosian from the University of Arizona will speak on "Genomics is modifying our concepts of evolution in homosporous pteridophytes" and Tamsen Dunn from San Diego State University will present "Deciphering the Polyploid Ks Histogram with Forward Time Simulations."

Join us on Wednesday, November 6, at 11 AM PST for the the next #PolyploidyWebinar! Sylvia Kinosian and Tamsen Dunn will present. The zoom link will be emailed out before the talks - sign up here if you have not signed up before! www.barkerlab.net/polyweb

Integrative analysis of CAM photosynthesis reveals its impact on primary metabolism in Yucca Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) is an adaptation that temporally separates carbon uptake at night from photosynthesis during the day. CAM has evolved repeatedly across vascular plants, perhaps, in ...

Check out our new preprint where we explore downstream impacts of CAM on primary metabolism in Yucca. There's more to it than just malate! doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Love this sticker

A flyer for a webinar on getting into grad school. The event will be on October 30, 2024, at 9AM PST. Sponsored by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Register here: http://bit.ly/eebgradwebinar Why choose UA EEB for your MS or PhD? UA fellowships and training grants What prospective advisors look for How to apply and what happens next Advice from current students Q&A

¡Prepárate para el posgrado! Webinar: Cómo ingresar a la escuela de posgrado 30 de octubre de 2024 a las 9 a.m. PST Patrocinado por el Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva de la Universidad de Arizona. Regístrate aquí: http://bit.ly/eebgradwebinar ¿Por qué elegir UA EEB para tu maestría o doctorado? Becas y subvenciones de capacitación de la UA Lo que buscan los posibles asesores Cómo postularse y qué sucede después Consejos de estudiantes actuales Sesión de preguntas y respuestas

📢 Calling all prospective grad students: join us Oct 30 for a zoom webinar hosted by UofA EEB in a step towards demystifying the grad school application process. Info below 👇, registration required (register here: bit.ly/eebgradwebinar)

It's my Littorella's first birthday! I mean they're clonal... so maybe more of a one year anniversary? Unclear. Either way, I want cake. 🍰🌱🎉