Joslynn Lee, Ph.D.

Black History Month isn’t nostalgia—it’s truth-telling. This city, this country, was built by Black hands, Black labor, Black brilliance. Honoring that history isn’t radical. Erasing it is. Remember who built the mosaic—and who’s still trying to break it.

What a great weekend spent with undergrads at the ACS Graduate School Readiness Bootcamp! It was awesome to be a facilitator and help students get ready for their next steps in life! As a PI, I tried to remind them we are human and want the best for them. But funding is definitely an issue.

Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.

First day back to teaching, & still masking! This start of semester is hard with what’s happening in the US now. I’m distracted, my students too. I told students to show up if they can but communicate with me if they cannot. Though ICE is in major cities, I know folks may have loved ones affected.

Also knowing educational, curriculum & training are important for the next gen of scientists! More coming in data analysis this year but this was an awesome contribution on how to collect samples and organizing public data and downstream analysis! So many great folks on this effort. 2/2

Unearthing soil biodiversity through collaborative genomic research and education - Nature Genetics The BioDIGS project is a nationwide initiative involving students, researchers and educators across more than 40 research and teaching institutions. Participants lead sample collection, computational ...

End of 2025, we got our collaborative paper published! It’s exciting to be part of BioDIGS to bring microbiome research and education to undergraduates. Happy to see 2 FLC students as co-authors! 1/2

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The days between December 25 and January 1 are the Lanthanides and Actinides of the Gregorian calendar

#FLCForever Support #FLCFOREVER Giving Tuesday 2025!

Help our undergraduate research program on #givingtuesday ! We’ve got incredible students who can benefit from any donation size.

givingday.fortlewis.edu/giving-day/1...

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 333 tenure-track positions and 48 teaching-only positions: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #facultychemjobs #chemsky #chemchat ⚗️🧪

That’s awful, esp at a conference like ABRCMS. I hope the student is doing okay! I’m not sure why people say things like that.

I do 10-12 min quizzes in class, 1-2 problems. It does take up time but I’m able to check into what students are missing & intervene. I’ve cut some content unfortunately, I don’t get as deep into MO theory or redox reactions. That content they’ll see again in chem 2 to get more practice.

I assign pre- & post-lecture questions & give weekly quizzes on Fridays. I prepared reading guides, sort of fill in the blank & walk through problems alongside the book. Many really like as the book can still be a lot. These smaller assignments have them “studying” or looking at material more.

We have three 55-min lectures and a 3-hr lab section = 4-credit hr. A PUI w/o grad student TAs.
I tell students they should be studying minimum 6 hrs a week. We have a majors section & the rest are open to all majors. In the majors section we can go deeper on topics as most have had gen chem in HS.

Live updates: US voters head to the polls in first general election since Trump's return to power One year after Donald Trump retook the presidency, 2025 Election Day includes closely watched races for New York City mayor, New Jersey governor and California's Proposition 50.

BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students.

Follow AP for live updates.

Webinars | Is this really science? How social justice conversations benefit your chemistry class | AACT AACT is a professional community by and for K–12 teachers of chemistry

I'm giving a webinar with AACT on Tues Nov 11 at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST. It's free! It's only an hour! Register here: teachchemistry.org/professional... #iTeachChem

Collaborating with American Chemical Society (ACS) along with some great speakers on this amazing panel tomorrow at #ndiSTEM2025!

Gave my practice talk at rehearsal for #ndistem2025! I forget the bright lights and size of the audience! Excited to be here in Columbus for the #SACNAS conference!

There is active ICE behavior in the Durango community. It’s hard to teach when all of this is happening.

I’ve donated supplies to my local food bank. If you can to help your community, do so!

What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.

"...researchers who invest time in their students tend to lead more-productive, more-collaborative groups and attract stronger future students than those who do not." "Time spent with the next generation of scientists is an investment."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wow!!

Two Indigenous women standing together with people in the background.

Chalkboard sign with written words: Happy Indigenous People’s Day.

Celebrating Indigenous People’s Day at Fort Lewis College. The rain pushed back our solidarity walk but such great words from a keynote speaker and wrapped up with lunch! Got to pose with our college president!

Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities.

alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Some Ralph Lauren models wearing a Native American belt buckle and pin. Also photos of Native American repoussé pin and handmade silver rings in different styles.

Native American silver cuff bracelet, rings, and belt buckles decorated with turquoise stones.

Native American cuff bracelets and pendants, many decorated with turquoise stones.

Native American squash blossom necklaces.

Some things I saw recently that I think are cool (Native American jewelry edition):

— Neil Zarama. New Ralph Lauren collab coming (IG whirlinglog_and_arrow)
— Troy Oviedo (IG troyoviedo) 😮‍💨
— Falcon Trading Company (IG ftcjewelry)
— Samuel Sumpter (IG nabaahii_bizhiil_creations)

Nobel Prizes This Year Offer Three Cheers for Slow Science

three cheers for slow science, each Nobel representing decades of inquiry that paved the way for the technology, treatments, & toys of tomorrow:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/s...

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

Today was a hard day for Ph.D. students who found out that they can no longer apply for NSF's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program. "Devastating“ was how one student described it to me. #GradSchool #NSFGRFP

www.science.org/content/arti...

This new class has been a lot of prep work but so much fun to get back into some grad school methods! We first learn some theory (PE functions, scoring, sampling, etc) and have hands-on mini-workshops in the computer lab. The main issues have been internet browsers cause different issues. 🙃

We used Zinc20 to download mol2 files. A quick overview of drug discovery & target ID. I wish I had this in undergrad, I only used some tools in grad school. It’s been exciting to see how computational tools are free & lower entry barrier! They only paywall was a nature reviews drug discovery paper.

Today in my chemical biology course, students were able to perform molecular docking using SwissDock! The web-server has a huge update & output opens in ChimeraX (seen below) pretty well. To compare the prediction with a known structure, they did an alignment with poses. Predictions were close! 1/2

The sad truth is that vaccines and vaccination are a feedback loop. We take them for granted because they work well for the most part. Then we take them away because of concerns or downright quackery. Then the diseases come roaring back, making vaccines cool again.

In the interim, people die.