Emily McPike

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

James Baldwin

Interested in AGN disk-embedded binary black holes? Check out how we’re modeling electromagnetic counterparts to BBH mergers in AGN disks @ my #AAS247 iPoster (for AAS folks — 5:30pm, 1/6), linked here! + Keep an eye out for the paper, coming soon… 👀 aas247-aas.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx...

I’m at my FIRST ever AAS Meeting! 🥳 🙌 If you’re in Phoenix for the 247th AAS Meeting, let’s get coffee :) I’m presenting my iPoster TUES 1/6 @ 5:30 — come visit my poster, let’s chat about electromagnetic flares from AGN disk-embedded binary black hole merger remnants!🕺🏻🌌

and we have never had a real tree since! the end 🎄

the couches, the rug, the ornaments, the walls—FLOODED with little mites. my poor mom, alone, with her open wound on one side and a baby on her other hip, had to battle back the biblical swarm with a vacuum for hours.

she loads my sister and i onto the bus. she walks home. she opens the door. she screams. the entire living room is COVERED in little black bugs that have awakened from their slumber in the tree. the real tree has betrayed her.

my mom LOVED getting the real trees. she loved the smell and the cheer it brought to the house. she insisted on getting a real one every year. we had just decorated our beautiful, real tree that weekend.

she was on bed rest most of the time but insisted on walking my sister and i up the street to the school bus stop in the morning. she had my baby brother, 1 year old at the time, in bed at home. my dad was on duty at the fire house.

the week before christmas 2009, my mom was recovering after a full mastectomy to remove her breast cancer. she had an open wound in her chest and a fluid bag attached to her.

i just saw this. i need to share my mom’s christmas nightmare with the people.

a sweet treat! my go to recently has been a double dark chocolate magnum mini ice cream bar with a swipe of creamy peanut butter☺️

Sexual harassment is a productivity tax on women in STEM

A quiche in a copper colored dish. The quiche has a golden brown crust, and rings of leeks decorated on top.

A quiche in a copper colored dish. The quiche has a golden brown crust, and rings of leeks decorated on top. (Zoomed out slightly so you can see a bit of the background stove)

i made a leek and mushroom quiche with black truffle gruyère cheese in a twice baked potato crust. i am so pleased with myself and so full

hand holding an I voted early sticker and pen up against a street backdrop

i just cast my vote for Zohran! early voting has started nyc friends :) get out and vote!!

Oh I forgot: I voted (Zohran) today!

If you know who you’re voting for & strongly support them, one thing you can do to help that campaign is to VOTE EARLY! The campaigns know who has voted (& who hasn’t) & will spend resources contacting their likely voters until Election Day OR until you vote!

this is derogatory and an attack towards CVS

when will the scourge of AI voice bots end when will we be able to just call other human beings

i have spent every weekend since i turned 24 in bed knitting + nursing a mug of peppermint tea. i am grandma but i am free

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/

As a final, final note: this change in policy is a disservice to all second-year graduate students and to the scientific community at large. Please reach out to grfp@nsf.gov to advocate for second year graduate students everywhere, and especially bridge program students!!

(9/9) In effect, the policy undermines the very mission of the GRFP by narrowing the applicant pool and excluding innovative, hardworking scientists the program is meant to support.

(8/9) since they aren’t guaranteed admission into the CUNY PhD directly after completing the MS. With this eligibility change, bridge students are now barred from submitting a competitive application before they have had the chance to complete, or even begin, a substantial research project.

(7/9) My program is funded by the Simon’s Foundation, so if a 1st year were to be awarded the fellowship, it would be unable to be applied. Even if it were able to be, the remaining 2 years of the fellowship would be unable to be applied,

(6/9) To then require students to develop a three-year research proposal just months after entering graduate school and essentially within a month of starting a research project is unreasonable.

(5/9) In my program, the CUNY GC Masters in Astrophysics, a two-year bridge program, students are not even matched with research projects until October of their first year.

(4/9) My story is echoed in my peers’ experiences. In this way, I cannot emphasis enough how this change in policy is a disservice to students who do not come from R1 institutions, and/or take a nontraditional route to a PhD — like students in bridge programs.

(3/9) I can speak from my own experience: I didn’t know what the NSF GRFP was until my senior year of undergrad. It was not because I couldn’t have prepared or couldn’t have written a good proposal — these resources were just not circulated in my department.

(2/9) In my eyes, bridge programs stand out as a tremendous effort to retain students who have non-traditional backgrounds. The path to a PhD is complex and difficult to navigate, especially for students who attend undergrad institutions w/o access to significant research funding or infrastructure.

(1/9) Generally, bridge programs are designed to provide critical training, resources, and support for students who are preparing to enter PhD programs. Terminal masters programs and bridge programs typically consist of ~2 years of course curriculum and research.

🧵 Thread about how the NSF GRFP eligibility policy change is bad for science, but especially bad for bridge program students: