John A. White, Ph.D.

Thanks Anna! Let's chat sometime early next year.

Thanks!

I have news: In January 2026, I'll be moving to @mechanicaluvic.bsky.social and @uvicecs.bsky.social as their new director of Biomedical Engineering! I'm excited to work with a fantastic group of students, staff, and faculty in an astoundingly beautiful location.

We are thrilled to host Dr. Stephanie Fraley @fraleylab.bsky.social from UCSD at BU this week! Join us Friday in PHO211 to hear about her exciting work in cell migration and cancer metastasis. #BME #Seminar #BUevents

Same here. The line was long. The friendly and efficient person giving us our shots told me the patients felt the need to get vaccinated “while they still can.”

Warnock to RFK jr: "For the first time, we are seeing deaths of children from measles. We haven't seen that in two decades. We're seeing that under your watch. You are a hazard to the health of the American people."

Great news! The Baltimore Museum of Art is taking “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” which was originally scheduled to take place at the National Portrait Gallery. artbma.org/exhibition/a...

OK, I guess indoor plumbing comes first. But has any medical invention saved more lives than vaccines?

Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, first in nation to do so Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo criticized school vaccine mandates, which every state has, and likened them to slavery.

Kids are going to die. Needlessly. Because some other kid's parents are listening to these people. It's monstrous.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Look at this graph.

The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened.

This is why we must build back union power.

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

Nine of the CDC directors over the past 48 years have a lot to say about what RFK Jr is doing vs health of Americans
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Know your rights if stopped by police in D.C. * Ask: “Am I free to leave?” and “Am I under arrest?” * If police stop you, they might ask if they can search you. You do not have to give the officers permission to conduct a frisk or a search, though in some circumstances they can do so anyway. Telling police that you do not consent to a search is a good way to protect your rights to the greatest extent possible. * You do not have to answer questions that police ask you, except to give your name and address if asked in some situations. * If you are arrested, you should tell the police that you are invoking your right to remain silent (say so explicitly) and that you want to speak with a lawyer. From there, you should not answer any other questions, except your name and address if asked. * If you are detained by ICE or Border Patrol, you have the right to hire a lawyer, but the government does not have to provide one for you. Ask for a list of free or low-cost alternatives. * It can be dangerous for people to argue about police misconduct in the street, especially for Black and Brown people. Keep yourself safe and file a complaint later.

Some useful advice fromt he the ACLU.

"At no other time in modern history has a country so throughly turned its back on its core national strengths."— @vermontgmg.bsky.social
Gift link
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/o...

Mount Holyoke College in lovely western Massachusetts is hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist. Amazing students and fantastic faculty support - please share!
mtholyoke.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

When you strip away humanity

Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump

You can never bend the knee enough to appease an authoritarian bully.

This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.

Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.

It is a cult, and dangerous. My dear mother, god rest her soul, was utterly unmoored from reality when it came to the priorities of the GOP.

This is excellent. In three minutes she explains how democracies become dictatorships. It's happened so many times, yet in each country, most people said, 'it can't happen here'

New England would like a word with you ..

N.I.H. did the citizenry a big favor in funding fellowships for trainees from poorer areas of the country. Either members of the administration don't know that these grants support great talent from their districts, or (more likely) they don't care.

Meet Dr. Daniel Carbonero, who aced his PhD defense today and will start his job tomorrow.

Fantastic day sharing knowledge with the brilliant researchers at NIH who valiantly work to advance the frontiers of science for the cause of improving human health. Thank you again for your service 🙏 🇺🇸

Next month, in lovely Florence, Italy, my student Brandon Williams can tell you all about his fantastic dissertation work, at a CNS*2025 workshop organized by my awesome collaborator Carmen Canavier.

www.medschool.lsuhsc.edu/cell_biology...

We set out to quantify U.S. academic contributions to medicines. The results stunned even us From 2020 to 2024, universities contributed patents underpinning 50% of FDA-approved drugs. 87% of those academic breakthroughs came from American institutions.

The astounding contribution of US academic science to new medicines

www.statnews.com/2025/06/06/u...

“We take vaccines so for granted in the United States” ...“Women in the developing world know the power of [vaccines]. They will walk 10 kilometers in the heat with their child and line up to get a vaccine because they have seen death.”

Melinda Gates

Nice!

Honored to give the 2025 commencement speech for my amazing high school, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas (students skip years of high school, and go straight to college). My topic - how to engineer serendipity: www.youtube.com/live/nVknJwk...

I was able to attend college specifically because of Pell Grants and federal work-study. These proposed budget cuts are designed explicitly to prevent students of limited financial means from improving their positioning in the job market and society.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

The great Nicholas Peppas is giving the 2025 Colburn Lecture at BU BME.