Rachel Poretsky

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons:
1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress
2) Write to your congressional reps.
3) Write to grfp@nsf.gov to request re-consideration;

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics?
1) Write NSF
2) Write your Congressperson
3) CC us at grfp@grant-witness.us so we can compile + follow up

Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

It me :)

Rando: "Communist!"
Zohran: "It's pronounced 'cyclist!"

Zohran is so good at this.
#Zohran
#NewYork

In honor of the transit bill that was passed in the middle of the night last night, saving public transit in Illinois from certain disaster, here’s a picture of my cargo bike dressed up as a @chicagocta.bsky.social train for Halloween.

The average nucleotide identity (ANI) underpins how we map microbial diversity, compare species, and connect genomes to ecology.
I wrote a short piece reflecting on the discovery and significance of this metric (and really enjoyed digging into the context and story behind it!) #microsky 🧬

Rev. Magdalen @revmagdalen.bsky.so... I hope someday we defeat fascism and in the far future, No Kings Day is celebrated as a federal holiday, and little children leave out dance mixtapes and cookies for the Resistance Frog, who leaves pocket Constitutions in their shoes. October 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM Everybody can reply

May it be so.

The Life After Cars audiobook read by Doug and Sarah is out, too! You can listen while you walking, biking and taking public transit.

Totally. I still get a weekend paper delivery but they’ve lost their fucking minds.

New story about yesterday’s #NoKings didn’t even make it above the fold in today’s @nytimes.com.

Why I Have Hope for America This weekend's "No Kings" rallies stand as an important corrective amid a dark moment

Three reasons I have hope for America, even after a very dark week: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/why-i-have...

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

‘Car Brain’ Is Making the US Unhealthy and Dangerous. EVs Won’t Fix It. A trio of new books argue that we need to confront the full range of costs that car-based living has imposed on our cities, our health and our society.

Three newly published books argue that cars are destroying society as well as the planet.

Is the world finally ready to rein in the automobile?

My essay, in @bloomberg.com (gift link below)

Apple has removed an ICE tracking app that allows users to report ICE activity nearby from its App Store.

The removal came after a direct demand from Trump’s DOJ.

Once again, Big Tech is bending the knee to our tyrant-in-chief to protect its bottom line.

bluesky please don’t implode, I refuse to try any more new things

Logan Square neighborhood, Chicago. Man wearing a balaclava in a white, unmarked vehicle, pulls the pin on a tear gas canister and tosses it in the road.

"Just trying to grab some lunch and these fucking losers showed up. FUCK ICE!"
source: www.reddit.com/r/LoganSquar...

Among them, a Poretsky Lab alum whom we miss very much here in Chicago (but are so excited for.)

Hi, Pete Hegseth. It’s me. Army veteran, Judge Advocate lawyer, and law professor. Your vain and gross performance to our nation’s military leaders succeeded only in proving your incompetence, dangerousness, and childishness. You’re a petty spoiled 7th grade boy without the sophistication or class.

The summarised schedule of Black in Micro Week 2025, October 14-16. All times are in Eastern Standard Time. Mon 14: Pathways for Change. Welcome and Keynote Address 12pm. Marian Johnson-Thompson, PhD. Panel Discussion: Finding Black Spaces in STEM, 1:15-2:15 PM. Weds 15, Careers & Research: ECR Symposium 9-12 PM. Panel discussion: Navigating Careers in Microbiology 2-3 PM. Thurs 16, Community: Panel Discussion - Empowering Your Science 12-1:15 PM. Workshop: Science in Action

This is your daily reminder that registration is open and *FREE* for #BiM2025 #BlackInMicro Week. Get ready to join our online celebration: linktr.ee/BlackInMicro (or see link in bio)

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy. Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

NSF GRFP is out 2.5 months late w/key changes

1. 2nd year graduate students not eligible.

2. "alignment with Administration priorities"

3. Unlike prior years, they DO NOT specify the expected number of awards... that is a BIG problem.

a brief 🧵 w/receipts

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

Stay ahead in infectious disease research! Join the Tools for Tomorrow Webinar Series from the NIAID BRCs. Monthly updates, new tools, fresh insights. Starts Oct 10, 2 PM UTC.

Register: tinyurl.com/NIAIDBRCWebi...

So if Jimmy Kimmel had just suggested killing homeless people by involuntary lethal injection, like Brian Kilmeade did on Fox, he’d still have a job?

TERRORISM EXPERT HERE:
He cannot designate an idea as a terrorist group.

There is no org called ANTIFA. There is no leadership or funding path or no membership. Also there is no terrorism law in America. Ask Luigi.

He wants to call anyone a terrorist. That’s Fascism.

#ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles

I did lab work and didn’t hurt myself or break anything. I did, however, have to constantly ask the labbies where things were.

And, turns out, 1) pathogens don’t care about state borders and 2) people travel to/from FL sometimes.

But they don’t give a shit if it’s illegal; they do it anyway.