Dani Arias-Rotondo

Had a great time at the Photochemistry GRC this past week! Now I get to sleep for 2 days to recover.

The Trump administration has placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they resisted turning over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s staffers. America, please stand with us—we are fighting to defend this country!

Technical Information and Data Downloads | US EPA This page provides an introduction to the technical information about EPA's Environmental Justice Mapping and Screening Tool (EJScreen) as well as links to detailed guidance.

For those concerned about environmental justice, the EJScreen tool (which provides valuable mapping and screening data) has not yet been taken down, and the database can be downloaded. Act fast…

www.epa.gov/ejscreen/tec...

Received this email from my chair tonight (🧵, 1/6):

"The DOE has issued new guidance indicating that, until further notice, there will be delays in any funding actions. Here’s what this means for projects pending or already awarded by DOE:
1. Pending Proposals: Awards will be postponed.
...

Teen Vogue never ceases to amaze me ✊🏼

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring Researchers facing

Saw people posting on this and was hoping they were isolated incidents… but nope, it’s real and it’s bad www.science.org/content/arti...

Immediately cut off anyone who is trying to make this argument. It’s gross.

A close up of a young red-footed tortoise in his enclosure. There is lettuce and butternut squash in front of him, and there’s squash smeared on his face.

Happy #TortieTuesday! Remember to eat your food like you mean it. Your forehead deserves food, too.

I’m going to need more pictures of Tatty, please and thank you.

All the torties! 😍

I’m so glad! The goals of Tortie Tuesday are to brag about my cute tortoise and bring some joy to my bluesky peeps 😊

A 2-year old red footed tortoise inside his enclosure. He is standing in front of a dish with cooked butternut squash and his face is covered with squash.

Happy #TortieTuesday! I dropped the ball before but I’m hoping to stick to it now.
May you have something today that brings you as much joy as Tortie gets from squash.

I honestly don’t know, I’m guessing “technically” bug = insect? Once my husband spoiled the fun with technicalities, I decided to complain on the internet 😅

I found this picture so cute that I excitedly showed it to my husband. This was a mistake, as he’s an entomologist and his reaction was “that’s an arachnid”. This is why I can’t have nice things.

Estimated cost of LA fires is in the neighborhood of $150 billion. I don't want to ever again hear the argument that climate policy is too expensive.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're sending their best. They're sending firefighters to help solve American problems. They're bringing fire fighting uniforms. They're bringing fire fighting equipment. They're bringing kittens down from trees. And all, I assume, are good people."

And yes, I wore things that were not striped tops and cardigans, but I don't let people photograph me in those, apparently 😂

Caden Frost ’26 and Alex Perry ’25 smile for the camera in front of their research poster, titled “Toward the synthesis of manganese (II) coordination complexes with tridentate imine ligands”. The contents of the poster are blurred.

An action shot of Dani (Dr. DAR)’s talk: she stands in front of a screen where a slide with an overview of the DAR Lab’s work is projected. There are several crystal structures on the slide. Dani is talking and gesturing.

Max Rhames ’25 and Dr. DAR smile for the camera in front of Max’s research poster, titled “A low spin manganese (II) complex with an emissive charge-transfer excited state”. The contents of the poster are blurred.

Will Tocco ’26 and Dr. DAR smile for the camera in front of Will’s research poster, titled “Synthesis of photoactive complexes of manganese (II) with NHC

The DAR Lab started the year at the I-APS (Inter-American Photochemical Society) meeting in Florida. Caden, Alex, Max, and Will presented posters on their research, and I gave a talk.
We got lots of great suggestions for future work, and have some collaborations cooking. A successful meeting!

Very true. No holiday left behind.

Why. Just, why. It’s January.

I cannot stress enough that libraries need to be defended. Public. Academic. School. Fight for them. USE them & make it known that you're using them.

As a librarian who lost the fight at their institution & was forced to toss 120,000 books because "no one reads books anymore," I am begging you.

A Low-Spin Manganese (II) Complex with an Emissive Charge-Transfer Excited State

Authors: Maxwell Rhames, Nora Burnett, William Tocco, Ahshabibi Ahmed, Annemarie Lee, Alexander Ruhren, Claire Besson, Julien Panetier, John Swierk, Daniela Arias-Rotondo
DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-r2qq0

Wow, is that what having your ducks in a row looks like? Classes start on Monday for us, and I’ve barely posted the first week 😳

This one is so so true.

It looks less friendly now.

You got me thinking. I’m wondering if you could explain to your students why you do things this way (b/c it’s better for them, as you said). But you probably already do that, now that I think about it 😅

I’ll see myself out :)

2/2

I try to have the problems pre-solved to avoid a big mess (I’m prone to those) that confuses them more. But I always walk them through the problems as if I were solving them “live”.
1/

Allowable any Nikki Giovanni I killed a spider Not a murderous brown recluse Nor even a black widow And if the truth were told this Was only a small Sort of papery spider Who should have run When I picked up the book But she didn't And she scared me And I smashed her I don't think I'm allowed To kill something Because I am Frightened

I return to this poem often, and have posted it around my neighborhood when the times call for it.

Today is as good as any day to return to it.

I spent so much time in the hospital this year, watching immigrants and children of immigrants care for my mom (who was an immigrant herself!)

I am never going to understand how my dad saw them all help my mom, and yet he still voted for Trump.

The synthesis and characterization in this paper were done almost entirely by @maxrhames.bsky.social
Max is grad school bound—snatch him while you can!