Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈

At some point the EiC needs to take over as editor or reassign an editor to make a decision. We get that sometimes editors become unavailable but that is why the EiC exists, and usually is paid (even if quite little). Also Wiley's new system sucks. Doesn't even send editors reminder emails.

This isn’t just strategic, it’s responsible science:
• Full model first ⇒ scrutiny & feedback
• Applied results later + confidence it’s right
• Two citable papers
• Science people actually read
Full models belong in modelling journals (bonus points for society journals like NRM)

YouTube video by UQ Science UQ Turing Test Public Lecture: Some Very Queer Mathematics

Prof Ben Burton’s public lecture “Some Very Queer #Mathematics” is now online, marking 75 years of the Turing Test and celebrating Alan Turing’s & LGBTQIA+ contributions to maths. @amermathsoc.bsky.social @chadtopaz.bsky.social @lgbtqstem.bsky.social #MathSky #ITeachMath #AcademicSky

Figure of how the optimal trap plant proportion of the field varies with the attractiveness of the trap plant and how much yield is at risk by the pests

My new paper on the #math of #wildlife friendly #agriculture. Reduce pesticides by using attractive "trap" plants to divert pests. But how many traps maximize yield? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #MathSky #MathsToday #iteachmath 🌍 Accessible to undergrads @smbmathbiology.bsky.social

Beautiful math predicts lingering periods of equilibrium dynamics when stochastically knocked close to the stable manifold of a saddle. Wonderful talk by shandelle Henson at #JMM2026 @jointmath.bsky.social on recognising saddles and cycles in ecological data.

Are you presenting on your students work at #jmm2026? remember to properly credit it and promote your student! Yun Kang did this really well in her awesome talk on the math of social insects! @jointmath.bsky.social

How do we achieve a better life while reducing emissions and energy consumption? Math! By Alexander Vaninski at #JMM2026 @jointmath.bsky.social. come join us 8am-5pm today in room 149 A for more math ecology, econ, disease and environmental talks.

Awesome talk on modeling illegal smuggling of wildlife and plant products at #JMM2026 @jointmath.bsky.social by Becky Epanchin Niell

Great talk by Suzanne Robertson on competition of mosquito disease vectors #JMM2026 @jointmath.bsky.social at the special session on modeling natural resources.

Come to our special session on modeling natural resources (ecology, diseases, environment, econ) at #JMM2026 room 149A today 8am-5pm @resourcemodeling.bsky.social @jointmath.bsky.social @amermathsoc.bsky.social first up climate + mosquitos + disease + ODEs by Michael Robert

For those who have never had Ethiopian. It's amazing. Lots of stews, eaten with a fermented flat bread called enjira. It's like a sourdough pancake made from a mix of teff & wheat flour. This place has a mild one that isn't as sour as the Eritrean version I'm more familiar with from back home.

bsky.app/profile/matt...

Looking for food at #JMM2026. I recommend Family Ethiopian Restaurant, I visited last night. 5 min walk from convention centre. Vegetarian entrees start at $12! Fish Dulet, pictured, was excellently garlicky maps.app.goo.gl/B1bj2BGHCTop... @amermathsoc.bsky.social @jointmath.bsky.social

Goals for day 1 at #JMM2026 1) eat good Ethiopian food 2) learn new #math 3) see cool math & street art 4) get over jetlag from Australia 5) acclimate to subzero temps. Accomplished 3/5 @jointmath.bsky.social @amermathsoc.bsky.social

You might be surprised how much impact an in person conversation with your representative can have. Take advantage of being in DC and do this!

Hey if you're in DC, you can just stop by your reps' offices. If you're leaving before the Hill Day after #JMM26 but want to go to the Capitol anyway, grab a few pals and go!

Take green/yellow to L'Enfant Plaza then blue/orange to Capitol Hill South.

It's baffling why the Go8 (a group of 8 leading universities in Australia) endorsed a position to weaken environmental laws. Not only do we, the researchers at these universities, disagree, but our research shows it is a bad idea. In just one day, 90 Go8 researchers documented our opposition.

Cute little spikey echidnas have massive poos! The size of a go card! The 💩 can also be detected by dogs. Let's turn 💩 into conservation solutions. Great talk by Kate Dutton-Regester at @uq-cbcs.bsky.social @brisbanetimes.bsky.social @qld.greens.org.au @hugepossum.bsky.social

Expand or better manage protected areas: A framework for minimizing extinction risk when threats are concentrated near edges Several international agreements have called for the rapid expansion of protected areas to halt biodiversity declines. However, recent research has sh…

Don't post your preprint on SSRN (option at many journals). Google scholar often delists papers that have an SSRN preprint. Arxiv preprints are more prominent in scholar. @elsevierconnect.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social @academic-chatter.bsky.social eg. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Love this Nesbit lecture by prof Ben Andrews on using the diffusion equation as a tool to understand geometry.

Our new paper: If you get a bit more conservation $ should you expand a protected area or improve management? Past work suggests management is often more cost effective but we show when threats are concentrated near edges we find expanding may be optimal doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... 🌍

This is excellent. I once reviewed a grant in a European scheme that had 12 while men on the team. I used similar framing to critique the issues, even though EDI was not included in the criteria. I also followed up with the scheme to ask why no EDI.

the answer to the trolley problem is not to pick who to sacrifice, it’s to dismantle the system that led to an unsafe trolley crossing.

if any part of your morality strategy involves picking a group to let die on a hill, throw the entire strategy out. it’s wrong.

As a grant reviewer, how do you request Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, even if it isn’t an explicit selection criterion Many funding schemes now include equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as an explicit selection criterion. But what happens when it isn’t written into the rubric? Should applicants still consider …

New blog: As a grant peer reviewer I consider Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) even if the scheme doesn't list EDI criteria. Key is to tie the selection criteria to EDI. This is how I do it mathemagicalconservation.wordpress.com/2025/09/23/a... @katehelmstedt.bsky.social @hugepossum.bsky.social

Happy 4^ / 3^2 / 5^2 day!!! (3^2/ 4^2 / 5^2 for us weird Americans) Not too many days satisfy the Pythagorean thm. @amermathsoc.bsky.social @austms.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com @monsoon0.bsky.social ht Peter Baxter for noticing. Looking forward to coming back to the US for joint maths in Jan.

Embedding Sustainability in Undergraduate Mathematics with Actionable Case Studies There is a growing need to integrate sustainability into tertiary mathematics education given the urgency of addressing global environmental challenges. This paper presents four case studies from Aust...

Ooh arXiv paper from @matthholden.bsky.social @katehelmstedt.bsky.social about embedding sustainability in undergraduate maths with case studies 👀 Looks very actionable!

arxiv.org/abs/2508.07594

Excited for our annual conference on modeling for ecology, biodiversity, sustainability, environment, water, energy, climate, fisheries, forestry, & ag. Love all the cool #math & stats used to save the world. Join us in Stellenbosch 2026. 🌍#MathSky @hugepossum.bsky.social @katehelmstedt.bsky.social

Job alert: 2.75 -3 yr postdoc in Mathematical ecology/epidemiology or Decision Sci at the University of Queensland on the value of information for decisions with @hugepossum.bsky.social @katehelmstedt.bsky.social Katriona Shea & myself #MathSky 🌍 uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/uqcareers/jo... please share

getting in an arms race with LLMs over em-dashes by using dashes so long ——— so very long ——— that they have never appeared in training data

Please share: PhD scholarship opportunity in mathematical ecology on the value of information for improving ecological management, open to international students, with a great team @hugepossum.bsky.social, Katriona Shea, Kate Helmstedt, & me at UQ, Australia 🌍 🧮, study.uq.edu.au/study-option...