Collin V (he/him)

Grad students & recent alums: Only 2 days left to apply for the MN Sea Grant Science & Policy Fellowship! 🌊

🔹 $55k stipend + $2.5k for prof dev
🔹 Work with MN DNR, MDH & more
🔹 Real-world water policy impact

Deadline: Feb 5 at 11:59 PM CT. ⏳

Apply on eSeaGrant: z.umn.edu/mnsg_science...

What South Carolina’s soaring measles outbreak means for the rest of the U.S. More than 840 measles infections have been reported in South Carolina, surpassing the tally in Texas last year. Public health experts say it shows the risks when vaccination coverage falls.

NEW: South Carolina’s measles outbreak is country’s largest in more than 25 years. But its falling vaccination coverage + rising religious exemptions from school requirements don’t make it an outlier. My story. Gift link. 1/3
wapo.st/4rttZRg

NSF seeks public input on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026–2030 NSF Strategic Plan

Do you care about the future of the US NSF and science in general? The agency is seeking feedback on the draft Strategic Plan. www.nsf.gov/od/updates/n...

Notice of Request for Information; Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from all interested parties on Federal policy updates that aim to accelerate the American scientific enterprise, enable groundbreaking...

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input on Federal policy updates to accelerate the American scientific enterprise.

This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

I plan to highlight:

Urban Ponds and the Emerging Role of Garden Ponds: Ecosystem Services and Disservices, Multifunctionality, and Trade‐Offs Urban ponds and garden ponds—a specific subset of the former, usually located in private gardens—are both typical examples of ponds in the urban landscape. They deliver multiple ecosystem services bu...

In our new review in WIREs WATER, we synthesize knowledge on ecosystem (dis)services, multifunctionality, and trade‐offs in urban ponds and highlight garden ponds as a specific subtype that deserves more attention
🏙️🔵🏡
doi.org/10.1002/wat2...
@epcn.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: EFI-ESA Stats Seminar: prioritizr R package. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. This Statistical Methods seminar by the Ecological Forecasting Initiative and the Ecological Society of America Statistical Ecology Section is hosting Dr. Richard Schuster from Nature Conservancy of C...

The next seminar in the Statistical Methods webinar series hosted with the @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Statistical Ecology Section is on November 3 at noon US ET.

Richard Schuster will present on “Decision support using the {prioritizr} R package”
prioritizr.net

Register at: bit.ly/3H9A3wt

QR code to sign up for a webinar on reviewing for IPCC reports. https://agu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FwfGqOFrS8yOpxPxNToZag#/registration

The US Academic Alliance for the IPCC (USAA-IPCC) and @agu.org will host webinar TOMORROW at 1pm EST on how to be an expert reviewer for @ipcc.bsky.social reports. Please register & learn how to improve science policy assessments like upcoming Special Report on #ClimateChange and Cities!

My Department (Biology) at @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social is hiring this year! We have an opening for a Tenure Track Cell and/or Molecular biologist (broadly defined).

Please share with your trainees/labmates/friends and reach out if you have questions.

apply.interfolio.com/171625

Yours truly and our mounted Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) specimen

The bird collection store, busy with visiting researchers, mounts, and in the background our volunteers who capture data from the specimen labels. It's not always this packed, but we do have a fair number of volunteers and visitors.

Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in trays in the cabinets. The collections spaces are pretty new, fresh, and functional, which is not always the case for museum collections...

A tray of African raptor eggs to illustrate the breadth of the bird collection, which holds som 70K skin specimens, 60K egg clutches, and 10K skeletons.

Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553!

🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job

Academic workers at state schools: Do not use your institutional email for union matters.

It's been 10ish years but sure, I can be a "dinosaur expert" 😅

(Taking bets on how long before a kid shows me up on dino facts)

Are you a researcher 5+ years post-PhD and interested in moving to Ireland? We have a new scheme which will support relocation and start-up costs.

@thomascullen.bsky.social one for you! 😉

Little spotted kiwi found on New Zealand's mainland for first time in 50 years "I'm not sure how to express how thrilling this rediscovery is for the conservation world," an expert says.

Some good news. 🪶

As someone from a low-income, blue-collar background who improbably navigated the rungs of academia to be here, this article speaks important truths. I've mostly been happy along my journey despite various struggles because I viewed the alternative scenario worse, but it wasn't easy. I've been lucky

This one strangely felt like a relief, maybe because knowing an outcome meant I no longer had to log in to see "with editor" anymore 😅 but thank you! Solidarity! 😊

MAXMINDS 2.0 Homepage MAXMINDS 2.0

It is with great pleasure that I share MAXMINDS 2.0, a new Max Planck program to support scholars in danger of displacement by war or natural disasters, and who have limited access to resources and institutional support.

If you know affected scholars, please share.

www.maxminds.mpg.de

Yesterday I had a paper rejected (after 3 months of sitting on the editor's desk) that assesses whether research is addressing local priorities for ecosystem services. Why? Because including services derived from interviews with land managers was seen as a "questionable" methods choice. I-- um... hm

Last night at Moth Night, we saw a lot more than moths. The highlight was happening upon this beaver absolutely chowing down on some wood, corn on the cob style. You’re gonna want to put your sound on for this one.

Goes without saying, but...

what a f*cking week.

STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

And *anyone* interested in #ICVM2025:
You can still register (costs as low as $75 US) and virtually attend! It's a heck of a bargain, to be able to see hundreds of presentations across >3 weeks!
www.xcdsystem.com/icvm/program...

Louder for those at the back, whenever I hear an academic say "I used copilot/chatGPT to [insert routine bit of our job] to save time" I hear "I lack the most fundamental core skills required to do my job".

I worked as a contractor at USAID for over 3.5 years supporting food security and climate adaptation programs and advancing youth inclusion to provide the next generation with good economic opportunities. The work we did saved lives and made the world safer. Without it... well, we'll see...

NASA just won an Emmy for our live broadcast of the total solar eclipse last year. We produced a documentary film about the James Webb Space Telescope that's out in theaters and on Netflix. We have podcasts, we write feature stories. People wear the agency logo on t-shirts. We're still getting cut.

This caught my eye when it was still a preprint, and I’m so happy to see it out. Everyone talking about the applications of AI to health or conservation or you name it… needs to reckon with this

We're back, baby 🙌

If you're trying to remove Google AI from your search results (on Google dot com) you can do this!

BHL contains the foundation of our understanding of biodiversity. 🌱 🌏 🦎 📖 🪱 🧪 🦉 There are countless researchers, educators, policy makers, fields, institutions, databases & species that rely on BHL. Please share our Call for Support as widely as you can: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran...

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12