Fay-Wei Li

Promotional graphic for the Jane Silverthorne Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Text reads: 'Jane Silverthorne Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Supporting early-career scientists with high-risk, high-reward research projects that bridge fundamental science with real-world solutions. BTI – Powered by the Jane Silverthorne Innovation Fund. Now Accepting Applications.' On the right side, there is a circular photo of a woman with long blonde hair and glasses, wearing a black top. The design includes green and white waves with a leaf and circuit logo.

Now accepting applications for the Jane Silverthorne Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at BTI! 🌿 Supporting bold scientists tackling plant science frontiers with cross-disciplinary approaches. Full funding for high-risk, high-reward research. Apply by Jan 15, 2026! 🧬 spf.btiscience.org

Join us for the 4th annual NonSeed Plant Meeting in Norwich this year! @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Michigan State University is hiring a new Director of our herbarium!

This is an open rank, tenure-stream faculty position, with research focus in plant or fungal systematics, ecology, and/or evolution

Please consider applying and help spread the word!

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

Museum Specialist (Natural Science), IS-1016-09 Job Opening: Museum Specialist (Natural Science), IS-1016-09 at National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

The NMNH Department of Botany is looking for a Museum Specialist. Please spread the word!

Botany is already happening in the Denver airport #botany2025

Shameless self-promotion continues...🙃 You might find this #fern book in your local bookstores! mailchi.mp/btiscience/f...

I guess you have to read the book now to learn why ferns are just better (hornworts are pretty awesome too to be honest)

Survival of nature's fittest may go to ferns Scientists Fay Wei Li and Jacob Suissa discuss their new book, "Ferns: Lessons in Survival From Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants."

New on This Green Earth: “Survival of Nature’s Fittest May Go to Ferns.” BTI’s @fernway.bsky.social & Jacob Suissa explore their new book Ferns: Lessons in Survival. 400 million years of resilience—what ferns can teach us today.
www.kpcw.org/show/this-gr...

#PlantScience #ferns

Text reads "About The Authors". There is an illustration of a fern across the top.

There is a headshot of Fay-Wei holding a fern on the left and then an illustration of a fern on the bottom. Text reads "Fay-Wei Li grew up in Taiwan, a subtropical fern paradise and studies for his PhD at Duke University where he and his advisor, Kathleen Pryer, named a new fern genus Gaga after Lady Gaga. In 2017, Fay-Wei joined the Boyce Thompson Institute as a faculty member. His research has been featured in NY Times, the Economist, and Rolling Stone.

Text reads "Jacob S. Suissa is a classically trained botanist and fern biologist who earned his PhD in Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on the evolution of form and function in ferns. Jacob also co-founded the educational non-profit Lets Botanize, which is dedicated to inspiring curiosity and passion for plants. There is al illustration of a fern and headshot of Jacob.

Text reads "Learn more at go.btiscience.org/ferns.

Meet the authors behind Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth's Most Adaptable Plants! BTI's @fernway.bsky.social and Jacob S. Suissa explore the ancient, resilient world of ferns — plants that have thrived for over 400 million years.

Learn more go.btiscience.org/ferns.

#FernsBook #PlantScience

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

Travel 400M years in a flip. FERNS explores the evolution, survival, and modern ties of Earth’s most adaptable plants. By @fernway.bsky.social & Jacob Suissa, illustrated by Laura Silburn. Out May 6: go.btiscience.org/ferns #FernsBook #PlantScience

My NSF PRFB on the genetics of female polymorphism in hummingbirds was terminated yesterday.

I don't have much to say, I'm just sad. We've discovered so much, and could have gone so much further.

If anyone else is in the same boat, esp postdocs, please reach out, it would be good to connect.

NSF starts to kill grants that violate Trump’s war on diversity efforts Attracting women and minorities into science and studying misinformation are no longer priorities, agency says

NSF has spent decades—and billions of dollars—trying to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups into STEM.

Not anymore. scim.ag/3RUtgZg

Jacob Suissa and I wrote a #book about #ferns! It's beautifully illustrated by the amazing artist Laura Silburn. Will be released in May and you can preorder from Amazon. We hope this book could help you forget all the bad things happening on Earth right now. More here: mailchi.mp/btiscience/f...

Une piste pour améliorer la photosynthèse des plantes agricoles grâce aux anthocérotes Les anthocérotes, des plantes méconnues, possèdent les capacités de photosynthèse exceptionnelles des algues. Les gènes responsables ont été identifiés. De quoi espérer améliorer la productivité agricole…

apprendre plus sur les anthocérotes et leur importance potentielle ? #photosynthese www.pourlascience.fr/sd/biologie-... @fernway.bsky.social @tarobison.bsky.social

Exclusive: Science and tech agency cuts spark industry pushback As Trump administration cuts hit research, some fear American leadership in computer science is at risk.

"I want parents who have children to know that opportunities for your kids, if they aspire to be scientists or engineers, are being stripped away right in front of you," the NSF employee told Axios.

www.axios.com/2025/03/10/a...

NSF fact sheet

The National Science Foundation benefits communities in every state.

Totally agree. He is perfect.

Just extended the deadline to March 21 for this position in the Plant Phylogenomics group at the University of Vienna. It is sort of a "post doc plus" position funded for up to six years.

Please reach out if you want to chat - I'd love to talk to you about it!

jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

As many of you know, ~170 Program Officers at #NSF were fired on Tuesday, including a number that worked in Divisions important to the EEB community (e.g., DEB and GEO/OPP).
1/3

It’s mostly the stupidity that kills them/us

The Funny Little Plant That Could Upend Agriculture - Ambrook Research Hornworts, an otherwise unremarkable bit of flora, has a unique photosynthesis booster. New research finds this booster has the potential to increase crop yields up to 50%.

A tiny plant with a powerful secret! The Li Lab discovered that hornworts have a unique CO₂ booster that could supercharge photosynthesis and boost crop yields by up to 50%! Could this be the future of agriculture? Find out more: ambrook.com/research/stu...

@fernway.bsky.social
#PlantScience

Firings happening right now at the NSF.

1/6 Super excited to share with you our work on Marchantia intra-specific diversity and pan-genomics, just out @naturegenet.bsky.social

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

Everything on the discoveries in the thread by @chloe-beaulieu.bsky.social

I want to emphasize 5 additional points:

Some good news: just got an email attempting to reschedule an NSF panel that was cancelled last week.

- 10,000 research grants flagged for review by NSF Program Directors

- Reviews due by 5 p.m. today

- They flag grants with "broadening participation" language, foreign aid, climate science, domestic energy, and "discriminatory programs including illegal DEI"

Email text: [EXT] Grants.gov Opportunities Update External Email The following grant opportunities were created, updated, or deleted on Grants.gov: NSF National Science Foundation 25-504 - Organismal Response to Climate Change Deletion Comments: Opportunity deleted

The dismantling of American Science continues. The Organismal Response to Climate Change grant call has been cancelled. The NSF Director is a disgrace

Complexity of the lichen symbiosis revealed by metagenome and transcriptome analysis of Xanthoria parietina Lichens are composite, symbiotic associations of fungi, algae, and bacteria that result in large, anatomically complex organisms adapted to many of th…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our first lichen paper led by ⁦‪@metalichen.bluesky out today is out today - Complexity of the lichen symbiosis revealed by metagenome and transcriptome analysis of Xanthoria parietina - congratulations & thanks to all coauthors

Some additional #NSF thoughts. As always, these thoughts are mine alone. But here goes, It seems the damage this situation has already caused to the research enterprise in the US may be catastrophic (and irreparable?).