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ltbikes.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Physics @ Stanford
22 posts 34 followers 64 following
Prolific Poster

#lovemeltsice <3 > [-]

Oakland showed up!

I love a good plot, and these are good plots. But it’s also devastating.

100% agree that the only response is collective action -- across universities and beyond!

And from Nature. @ucs.org president Gretchen Goldman suggests the EO steamrolls longstanding efforts to create a buffer between science and politics, putting US scientists and science under the thumb of political appointees like HHS secretary RFK Jr. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Making it clear, once again, that the administration is trying to bribe or strong-arm universities into ideological fealty with research funding and international students.

Our White Plaza rally is also about protecting international students! Education should be open to all. See the flyer made by our awesome student organizers. Faculty 🤝 Students 🤝 Staff 🤝 Public @stanfordaaup.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social

So excited to have Hakeem as one of our speakers! Let's get fired up!

"And so just when we most need to act — while there is indeed room for action and some momentum to the resistance — we tend to be lulled into complacency by the sense of relief on the one hand and boredom on the other." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/o...

Lowest science funding in decades. 85% less physics funding so far this year. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Let's Rally Stanford!!!!! Next Friday I'll be speaking about TAKING ACTION this summer.

Scientists and science-lovers, it's so important to tell these stories of the impact of federally funded science!

🚨🚨 Alarming NSF policy update By accepting an NSF award, an institution now must say it's: 1. Not engaging in boycotts of Israel (yes really) 2. Not advancing or promoting DEI in violation of anti-discrimination laws Announced via a footnote today: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/gc1-ma...

Women are PIs on 34% of all NSF grants, while 4% of PIs are Black. Nonetheless, these two groups account for 58% and 17%, respectively, of grant terminations. This is not a challenging chi-square to calculate. www.science.org/content/arti...

"Many scientists to whom we have spoken advocate for silence because they fear further funding cuts. We are aware that many scientists seem to be putting funding and immediate job security ahead of civil liberties and academic autonomy." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Note that this groundbreaking discovery made at @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social was made possible by no fewer than six NIH grants. There is enormous public value that comes from government-supported research. med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...

There are huge cuts proposed for Nasa's science budget. So much knowledge about the universe would be lost if they go through! See the open letter below for details and contact your congress people!

@aipstats.bsky.social just released new data on the impacts of funding cuts on physics & astronomy programs. 600 fewer grad students, more reductions expected for 2026. ww2.aip.org/statistics/i...

Scientists, don't want the stewards of our national science programs to be replaced with people passing political fealty tests? Submit your public comment opposing the schedule F change here: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

SCIENTISTS: The proposed Schedule F is out. It has potential to undermine or destroy merit-based science. Rules/regulations have the force of law. This rule may put peer review in the hands of political appointees. Make your public comment here: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Making an argument with evidence rather than vibes. Imagine that! 🔥 from my colleague @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social

"These data are a call to action for greater storytelling around the indispensability of public health and science. ... these stories should also be told at the individual level, within personal networks, as well as the organizational and institutional level by professional organizations/societies"

The Stanford AAUP’s “What Does Higher Education Mean” alongside Rodin’s “The Burghers of Calais” — bronze figures of citizens who offered their own lives to prevent their community from being pillaged by a king, sculpted to express the struggle of facing fears in devotion to a just cause.

ICYMI, DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

👏More👏of👏THIS👏Please👏 Stanford President Levin and Provost Martinez: "America’s universities are a source of great national strength, creating knowledge and driving innovation and economic growth. This strength has been built on government investment but not government control."

Connect with Stanford AAUP for A National Day of Action for Higher Education! Find our table at White Plaza Thursday, April 17, 12pm - 2pm 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝

👀🗓️ APRIL 17, A National Day of Action for Higher Ed @8am PT, grab a cup of coffee and join AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom in "The Antidote to Repression is Information" Thanks to @aaup.bsky.social to leading the conversation! Register and explore the other events here:

I've been a proud member of the ATLAS collaboration since I was a Fulbright Scholar in 2004-2005. This work has been federally funded by NSF, DOE and many other nations. We can only study the smallest bits of the universe through cooperative, international science.

@newyorker.com A field guide to dissent with a nice little reminder of the tradition of dissent amongst physicists. www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...

Our colleges & universities have been competing against each other for so long, they don't know how to come together anymore. Who has been practicing solidarity all this time? Higher ed unions. We will stand together when our institutions fail to. www.chronicle.com/article/coll...

The fear among academics and lawyers now talking on the record on just about any topic that involves the federal government or the White House is really extraordinary and worrisome, and getting worse, it seems to me, every week. Dissent by an establishment figures becoming verboten in the US

Physics professor Lauren Tompkins and I hadn’t heard of the AAUP. Then Trump came after universities, education, and research. Now, we’re doing what we can to rally Stanford faculty to our chapter, looking to build collitions across educational spaces. @ltbikes.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social

Today’s arXiv confirms it: Astro x Taylor Swift is emerging as a vibrant field of research 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2503.22795 arxiv.org/abs/2503.24188

Checking in on @booker.senate.gov while i'm eating lunch and wow, he sounds just as good as he did when I was listening to him 15 hrs ago!

Division of Violence Prevention Division of Injury Prevention Office of Health Equity Division of Reproductive Health Scientific Integrity Branch Division of Population Health Office of Human Resources Division of TB Elimination Division of HIV and TB All gutted

“We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated… The administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories, and hampering collaboration.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Many students at Southern Illinois University come from families that are poor, or barely middle class, and depend on scholarships. Vice Chancellor Paul Frazier says the way DEI has been politicized ignores what it actually does: “Poor doesn’t have a color.” With @capitolnewsil.bsky.social