Kayse Lee Maass

10 people sitting around a long restaurant table enjoying celebrating together

Celebrating the newest doctoral graduates of the Operations Research & Social Justice Lab @orsj-lab.bsky.social: Dr. Nathan Adeyemi and Dr. Arezoo Jafari!

For nearly 60 days, Israel has blocked food from Gaza. Palestinians struggle to feed their families For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.

For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other items has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.

Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.

Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.

Honored to be in the club with researchers whose work is deemed “not in alignment” w/ this administration’s “new priorities.” I know these grant losses hurt - esp to junior scholars and the staff employed them - and, I genuinely believe, we can be proud we were doing something they are scared of.

Close up of a flowering weeping cherry tree, with the white flowers in full spring bloom

My glimmer of joy today

Reminder to self: *Breathe*

Reflection: What’s within my control that I can do today to make the world a better place?

Reminder: applications due on April 30! Candace Yano from @BerkeleyHaas now added to the set of speakers for #FutureBAProf

NSF halts grant awards while staff do second review Action comes after DOGE team arrives at science agency

And now DOGE has arrived at The National Science Foundation (NSF) 😔 NSF has halted the awarding of previously approved proposals awaiting final signof to assess their alignment with the new administration. www.science.org/content/arti...

Two women professors stand together and smile

Red brick USC building with green grass, bright blue sky, white clouds, and many palm trees

USC Voterbi School of Engineering building.

Teaching and being inspired by the next generation of students who want to make the world a better place keeps me going these days. Grateful to guest lecture at the USC Analytics for Social Impact course about the importance of doing research in partnership with lived experts.

Thanks, Veronica. Your words to help. Community and support is so important, and more now than ever. 💕 Sending you support and care as well.

I’ll share more thoughts later, including our initial findings, once we have time to process this news and take care of our team.

This immediately impacts the brilliant people, including trafficking survivors, students, and others, who were financially supported through this research. It also has listing impacts on victims, survivors, and the products and services you purchase every day that are made by people being exploited

Yesterday we heard that our grant to help federal agencies become more effective and efficient at identifying and stopping labor trafficking has been terminated, effective immediately, with no reason other than it not aligning with current federal priorities . 🧵

PSOR Cluster - Session Chair Interest Form Thank you for your interest in serving as a session chair for the Public and Societal Operations Research Cluster (PSOR) at INFORMS Annual Meeting 2025! Session chairs play a vital role in organizing ...

Passionate about using Operations Research to improve people’s lives? Get connected with @informs.bsky.social’s Section on Public and Societal Operations Research!

One way to do so: organize a session at the upcoming #INFORMSAnnual2025 conference! Here’s how: bit.ly/PSORsc25

Perhaps some
@ewgla2025.bsky.social members are interested ⬆️

Calling all #LocationScientists! the @informs.bsky.social Section on Location Analysis is looking for session chairs for the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta. If you are interested in organizing a session, DM me for the link to indicate your interest.

meetings.informs.org/wordpress/an...

Here’s my Piem (Pi + Poem) in Pilish in honor of #PiDay

May (3) I (1) seek (4)
A (1) model (5)
Optimized (9)
To (2) equity (6)
Where (5) our (3) found (5)
Societal (8)
Solutions (9) brought (7)
Continued (9)
Joy (3)

In Pilish, the length of the words match the numbers as written in the sequence of digits in Pi. The 1st word has 3 letters, the 2nd has 1 letter, the 3rd has 4 letters, and so on.

5 students and 1 faculty member standing in front of a projector screen displaying a PowerPoint image of the letter pi and the text “Happy Pi Day ORSJ Lab!”

5 pies sitting on a table ready to be eaten for pi day. There are 2 berry pies, 2 cream pies and 1 quiche. The pies are decorated with a pi symbol

Happy #PiDay from the Operations Research & Social Justice Lab! Pie, pi trivia, a pi soundtrack and pi-inspired poems written in Pilish

Join @nusl.bsky.social's centers of excellence and MIRA: Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Inc. for this years Immigration Day Action.

Information below 👇

It’s not even in dispute & very clear in data. Racist federal housing finance policies in the 1930s+ [redlining] combined with continued disinvestment, made communities of color disproportionately have more concrete & less green infrastructure, which make them hotter. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.

Funding & Awards Anticipated in FY 2025Review Anticipated NIJ Research Interests in Fiscal Year 2025.

Heres the page: nij.ojp.gov/funding#4-0

Screen shot of Google results for National Institute of Justice Awards. Results say “no information is available for this page”

Screenshot of NIJ website where you used to be able to click through to search a list of research projects that have been funded and a list of products: publications, reports, peer-reviewed articles)

All details of previously funded research at The National Institute of Justice are gone from the website. The links used to take you to a database where you could see what research has been funded with taxpayer money & read (for free!) what the research found out. Now it redirects to a home page

Finding moments of joy amidst all the chaos has been a way to recenter myself—today that meant blowing bubbles with my toddler and letting his laughter become infectious. 🫧 Take care of yourself, take care of others, find joy. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

#NIJ and all #DOJ opportunities for funding have been cancelled. This will have negative impacts on our public safety. #AcademicTwitter #Orms