Wai Allen, PhD

Congratulations! 🎉

Congratulations!

NSF Geo-Futures Program Geo-Futures is a conference-based program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that engages with, and provides educational resources for, students interested in pursuing a career in the geo...

Deadline for the GeoFutures program has been extended to 07-11-25. The program provides travel & mentoring support for geoscience undergrads attending the 2025 SACNAS conference. @accessiblegeo.bsky.social @agu.org @official-bweems.bsky.social @sacnas.bsky.social environment.uw.edu/about/inclus...

For perspective: a recent study suggested that economic savings from just a *single* well-predicted hurricane, thanks to NOAA research advancements, are on order of *$5 billion.* That exceeds NOAA's *entire proposed annual operating budget.* So much for government efficiency.

Tribal Colleges Worry for Their Survival After Proposed Cut Department of the Interior proposed reducing funding for tribal colleges by more than $100 million. Some tribal college leaders fear their institutions wouldn’t survive it.

Tribal Colleges Worry for Their Survival After Proposed Cut

Department of the Interior proposed reducing funding for tribal colleges by more than $100 million. Some tribal college leaders fear their institutions wouldn’t survive it. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4lyfmJl

We All Need to Be Talking About the Murder of Jonathan Joss This Pride and Beyond The actor, who was Comanche and White Mountain Apache, was shot in a targeted hate crime while protecting his husband.

Wrote this piece for Harpers Bazaar about the life, legacy, and hate-induced murder of Jonathan Joss through the eyes of being a Two-Spirit Native person this Pride.

I hope you take a read. For Him. For all of us. 🪶

Please know Trevor Project has 3 ways to access help when needed. Also, Make a donation, if you can.

www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

Ugh more disappointment

End of an Era: Landsat 7 Decommissioned After 25 Years of Earth Observation After 25 years of capturing Earth's changing landscape, the Landsat 7 satellite received its final transmission from the U.S. Geological Survey and was officially decommissioned June 4, closing a rema...

USGS, which operates the Landsat satellites, just announced that Landsat 7 was officially decommissioned today. Landsat 8 and 9 continue operations.
www.usgs.gov/news/nationa...

Ugh Im sorry. I spoke with Ken and Felica today

Today the Supreme Court cleared the way for the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of national forestland including a Native American sacred site, to Resolution Copper a mining company owned by Rio Tinto and BHP. The land holds deep spiritual significance for the Western Apache tribe.

Tribal communities risk losing local libraries and the history they hold amid DOGE cuts Federally recognized tribes say the Trump administration cut the grant money they use to sustain the local libraries that serve as anchors in their most rural communities.

More than a hundred libraries on federally recognized tribal lands across the country were notified that their congressionally appropriated grant had been terminated midcycle.

Those communities are at risk of losing their local libraries and the history they hold.

Laughing bc otherwise I will cry 🙃 guess I'll hold off on submitting that NSF grant I was working on

About EES The NSF Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EES) aims to provide opportunities for individuals from all backgrounds, especially those historically underrepresented in science and engineering.

NSF’s entire Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EDU/EES), which “aims to provide opportunities for individuals from all backgrounds to actively participate and excel in STEM disciplines” and some of it congressionally mandated, was just notified they will be RIFed. www.nsf.gov/edu/ees/about

Thanks Kim!

The crisis of missing and Murdered Indigenous People is urgent and ongoing. Today is about more than remembrance. It's a call for justice. We are always working to get answers, action, and accountability. #MMIP

today is the National Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. I created this mini guide as a resource to increase awareness, share education, and provide links to resources to get involved.
#MMIW #MMIR #NoMoreStolenRelatives

Policy Notice: Implementation of Standard 15% Indirect Cost Rate

It's official. 15% ICR on NSF grants.

My favorite line: "Reducing administrative burdens for awardee institutions."

Say the opposite of what is true... the communication strategy of our time: www.nsf.gov/policies/doc...

HHS plans to cut the national suicide hotline’s program for LGBTQ youth In February, the program received an average of 2,100 contacts per day.

At RFK Jr’s direction, HHS plans to cut the National Suicide Hotline’s program for LGBTQ youth. In February, the program received an average of 2,100 contacts per day.

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly. Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

NSF Cancels Hundreds of DEI and Disinformation Grants - Eos The National Science Foundation has cancelled hundreds of grants to researchers working on projects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as misinformation and disinformation.

On Friday, the NSF announced the cancellation of awards that aren’t aligned with the agency’s mission, “including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.”

eos.org/research-and...

Happening NOW

🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵

On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE).

The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases:

"not subject to appeal"

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

Hearing from sources that grant terminations are starting now, likely targeting grants aimed at broadening participation of underrepresented groups in science.... which congress explicitly asks NSF grants to do.

Updates on NSF Priorities

Updates on NSF priorities - as they begin to terminate grants...

"Today, the U.S. National Science Foundation began terminating awards that are not aligned with agency priorities. NSF priorities are grounded in our mission and modulated by statutory directives and administrative priorities. "

NOAA Datasets Will Soon Disappear - Eos NOAA has quietly reported that they will soon decommission 14 datasets, products, and catalogs related to earthquakes and marine, coastal, and estuary science.

NOAA has quietly reported that they will soon decommission 14 datasets, data products, and catalogs related to marine, coastal, and estuary science and earthquakes. Story by @astrokimcartier.bsky.social. eos.org/research-and...

There is earthquake and geothermal data in this. (I hadn't realized those were in NOAA rather than USGS databases.)

Shout out to the tenured and emeritus faculty who are speaking up on here, at rallies, in calls and emails to legislators, in board meetings, in meetings with funders, so that us non-tenured folks don't risk our careers to speak out against *waves hands wildly* all of this