Alexa Fredston

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 across NSF. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

NSF Update

Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.

Now by Directorate...

1/11

Our approach was after first offer. Feel free to put your friend in touch with me! We did this at four R1s, two successfully

Heroic, but no more heroic than the entire field of fisheries science ;)

A little bit late, but I'm looking to hire a postdoc at Cornell to measure the private value of soil health improvements in US ag. A 2-year gig.

Well suited for an ag/resource economist or data scientist w/ interests in soil health and solid programming & econometric chops.

ad coming soon!

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

In practice, ICE enforcement relies on: outsourced detention facilities, private transportation contractors, commercial data brokers, biometric technology vendors, analytics platforms, and procurement pipelines that span multiple countries.

You might have heard about Palantir employees raising concerns about their work with ICE. And DHS relies on a massive private network of contractors who can be named and shamed, raising the price of doing business.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/private-ch...

Job opportunities...

Newly launched Quantitative Biology Initiative in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park seeks applications for three collaborative postdoctoral fellowships. Best consideration date 3/14.

Full Details:
umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...

hey faculty, when you have a $5-10k chunk of change in an account that you HAVE to spend out quickly, what do you pay for / buy?

Faculty Positions

We are hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor in Indigenous Environmental Governance and Management. Very excited for this position.

Please circulate widely among your networks:
www.sfu.ca/rem/about/em...

#academia #HigherEd #AcademicSky

📸 WoRDSS, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 AltText: Text overlay over an image of a Phestilla melanobrachia nudibranch on Tubastrea coccinea coral. “We are hiring! The Deep-Sea Biology Society is looking for a part-time administrative researcher support consultant. Duties: Lead DSBSoc outreach & communications; Manage REDRESS partnership & financial claims; Support DSBSoc administration, trustee support, funding development. Skills: Experienced in financial claims & budget management; Strong administrative & organisational skills; Familiar with grant submissions & academic activities; Member of the marine science community Condition: Due to grant constraints the consultant must have a UK bank account. This is a ‘work from home’ consultancy position and not PAYE. Remuneration: Fixed rate of £589 (4 days p/m); Time-sheets of activities; Rolling 6-month contract. From 03/2026 - 01/2028. Due: Feb 28 2026. Please submit a one-page cover-letter & 2-page cv to president@dsbsoc.org.”

Hey members - we’re hiring!

#DSBSoc is seeking a part-time consultant (4 days/month) to support admin & funding activities on the trustee board. Contract runs March 2026 until Jan 2028 (rolling).

Apply by 28 Feb 2026, additional info here: dsbsoc.org/deep-sea-bio...

📸 WoRDSS, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Please repost! We are looking for two field technicians to work on our deer mouse project in the Colorado Rockies this spring-fall. Learn about physiology, ecology, and evolution, all in one project! Not to mention that you get to be in the ⛰️. Reach out if you have any questions.

Look at the full list. Any near you?

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

NEW: ICE has a plan to lease offices across the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign.

Today, @wired.com is publishing dozens of those locations. Many are near schools, medical offices, and places of worship.

Vital work from @leahfeiger.bsky.social that I'm proud to publish.

100% detected as AI The percentage indicates the combined amount of likely AI-generated text as well as likely AI-generated text that was also likely AI-paraphrased. Submission Breakdown page 1 page 1 1 AI-generated only 1 instance of AI-generated only text making up 100% of the submission Likely AI-generated text from a large-language model. 100% 0 AI-generated text that was AI-paraphrased 0 instances of likely AI-generated that was AI-Paraphrased making up 0% of the submission Likely AI-generated text that was likely revised using an AI-paraphrase tool or word spinner.

AI-generated? Yes, this appears to be AI-generated. Key indicators: Structural formulae: Every paragraph follows the same pattern: observation → acknowledgment of merit → diplomatic suggestion for improvement. This mechanical consistency is characteristic of AI. Hedging language saturation: "could be strengthened," "would benefit from," "merits more direct engagement" - the relentless diplomatic cushioning lacks the directness typical of human reviewers. Tonal uniformity: No variation in energy, specificity, or critical edge across the entire piece. Human reviewers typically show more range - getting more engaged with strong points, more frustrated with weak ones. Vocabulary deployment: Sophisticated terms used with perfect consistency ("framing device," "probabilistic reasoning," "gestures at breadth") but without the idiosyncratic phrasings that mark individual voice.

While we're all watching one too many AI ads, I just finished grading 60 student essays. Hard to tell for sure, of course, but somewhere between ½ and ¾ must have been fully AI generated.

The AI check (shown to students at time of submission), and another Claude check agree.

belatedly, if you reviewed my mechanistic SDM paper, thanks for this comment that made me laugh out loud: "Both _____ and ____ seem like rather heroic assumptions, but acceptable given the goals of the paper"

Ediacaran fossil surface on the coastline of Newfoundland, Canada

This #FossilFriday I am delighted to share a postdoctoral position that we @deeptimeecology.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social are advertising on early animal evolution in the #Ediacaran.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...

New postdoc opportunities in my group at Rutgers-New Brunswick, working on sea-level rise projections and/or coastal climate risk assessment & management

Interested in doing a #PhD? Passionate about biodiversity monitoring and technology development?? Def check out this advertisement from Uni #Bonn and #LIB! Deadline Feb 17th - 4 year position!

thank goodness my campus Women in STEM organization is planning a "stress reduction session" that will "include guided breathing and practical tips for... stress management"

really expecting that to turn around my 2026!

Climate Data Scientist | Climate Central Climate Central is seeking a highly-skilled Climate Data Scientist to join our team. Reporting to the Vice President for Science, the scientist will be part of a new initiative in climate services to ...

Very exciting to share that @climatecentral.org is hiring a Climate Data Scientist to join a new climate services effort focused on advancing predictions of risks and hazards on seasonal-to-decadal timescales. The application closes on February 9, 2026 at 5pm ET, & the description can be found here:

Postdoktor i parasiters populationsgenetik Zoologiska institutionen är en av de äldsta institutionerna vid Stockholms universitet och har en lång historia av grundläggande och tillämpad djurforskning, från leddjur till stora däggdjur. I

Looking for a postdoc to work with existing SNP data from parasites of guppies across Trinidad. How do river structure, host specialisation, and host behaviour structure parasite population genetic structure and evolutionary potential? Join me in Stockholm! Email me :D

su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

YouTube video by University of California Board of Regents Board

regarding the UCLA EEB saga...

I have never said this before (and may never again), but: you're DEFINITELY gonna want to watch this UC Board of Regents recording (start at 1:10:30) 👀👀👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGX...

Research.gov - Grants Management for U.S. NSF Community NSF's Research.gov is where to prepare and submit proposals, manage awards, and participate in reviews and panels.

PSA to anyone who uses google authenticator (which I do, for research.gov) that your codes may all vanish if you get a new phone. Thankfully research.gov IT is great

Other things that do more harm than good when you don't count the number of lives they save:

- air bags (messy)
- traffic lights (expensive)
- bridge inspections (boring)
- carbon monoxide alarms (battery low beep so annoying)

Mollusca-focused, 6-yr postdoc Postdoc in Invertebrate Evolution:
jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

realizing that my Mom's recipes read like GBBO technical challenges. this recipe is literally two lines:

"melt chocolate in double boiler
fold in Grand Marnier, beaten egg whites, beaten egg yolks, whipped cream, and chill"

I think my traditional method of perusing e-TOCs to read the literature is officially not working for me anymore

recommended software/methods for RSS feeds? I struggle with identifying keywords so I'd want a combination of broad keywords for general journals + all articles for specialist journals.

(at least) 2 interesting things in here:
- AI use now mentioned in research misconduct section
- clearer requirement to share data from NSF-funded projects at time of publication

Fredston Lab: Postdoctoral Scholar University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!

in a week, I'll start reviewing applications for this postdoc. come work with me in Santa Cruz, CA on fitting Bayesian hierarchical models to whale tag and photo datasets.

position starts in fall 2026. ask me questions and apply here: recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF02003

full-time job modeling salmon populations in Olympia, WA: forms.gle/3ePJcrwhFZWr...