Bethany Williams

Some very skeptical and cute cichlids checking out my camera (and a bunch of tetras in the back). #fishsci #fieldwork🐟

It’s the best time of the year! Field work season 😁 Check out these Theraps lentiginosus cichlids guarding their babies!

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...

MEEC2025, CALL FOR ABSTRACTS!

Submit your abstracts for MEEC2025 here! www.umsl.edu/biology/meec...

Current or proposed research is acceptable to present! Abstracts are due by March 28.

Biology doctoral student Soren Johnson studying how cave fish evolve in response to their unique environment - UMSL Daily Johnson was a 2024 recipient of the R. C. Lewontin Early Award, a graduate research grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution.

Our grad student Soren Johnson was featured in a recent UMSL Daily article.

blogs.umsl.edu/news/2025/02...

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house."

Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.

www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...

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.

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled

Letters to a Pre Scientist! It’s a cool program that pairs scientists with middle schoolers to inspire kids to think about STEM careers

Science is important. Broader impacts are important. Anyone else get up to anything ‘wasteful’ in the last year that they’re proud of?

As a NSF PRFB postdoc it would be nice to know if I can pay rent next month (crazy, right). In the meantime, for no reason whatsoever, here are a few ‘wasteful’ things I’ve done as a postdoc: been a science pen pal, helped run a booth at a science center, mentored a high school lab intern.

E. Des Lee and Family Endowed Professorship in Science Education - St. Louis, Missouri, United States job with University of Missouri, St. Louis | 37753610 Hiring Department The Department of Educator Preparation & Leadership at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) Job Description The...

#SciEd friends, UMSL is hiring a Des Lee Family Endowed Professor in Science Education. This is one of the endowed professorships in the Des Lee Collaborative Vision, which emphasizes community engagement and outreach. Would love to see some biology folks apply!

jobs.chronicle.com/job/37753610...

They’re not parthenogenic, but they are livebearers like the Amazon molly!

Bluesky finally has videos so now I can share some field work videos from this summer! 😁🐠Here are some sulphur mollies in a sulfidic spring all “doing the wave” aka all diving down at the same time when they see a predator (aka me standing up) #fishsci

Fieldwork in sulfide springs

The RFP for #PRFB is out again. If you are interested in developing a postdoc research project in the realms of (extremophile) fish biology, evolutionary ecology/genomics, and/or conservation, shoot me a message. St. Louis is an awesome place to live and do science!

new.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

A wild week surveying the endangered inhabitants of springs, sinkholes, and wetlands in the Chihuahuan desert. We had an awesome team working through 70 sites; ready to return in the fall!

Bethany Williams's Team RMHC Chicago Marathon 2024 Personal Fundraising Page Please support me and donate to my page as I fundraise for the Team RMHC Chicago Marathon 2024 event

Secondly, I’m fundraising for Ronald McDonald House to run the Chicago Marathon. So please consider donating or sharing the link below if you like running, charities, fish, or helping sick kids and their families 😁

#teamfish #teamRMHC

support.rmhc.org/site/TR/Team...

Opening Bluesky for the first time in ages to share two things. First, some cool pictures from my most recent research trip to Mexico studying fish in sulfidic waters!

Hi, I’m Bethany!
I study how fish respond to multiple stressors, most recently in African cichlids in Uganda during my PhD and now moving on to studying fish living in sulfidic streams in Mexico for my postdoc.