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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa)

@jkwasa.bsky.social
226 followers 188 following 49 posts

BME and Neuro postdoc researcher @ Carnegie Mellon University. Chief Tech Officer. Inclusive and equitable neurotech design. 2024 U.S. Fulbright Scholar. The favorite auntie 😏 Living somewhere between Pittsburgh, Nairobi, and Chicago

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Reposted by Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa)
Ainissa Ramirez, PhD @ainissaramirez.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
ICYMI My new picture book, SPARK, received a great review in Kirkus Reviews 🎉 Coming to bookstores on 10/21/25 via Candlewick Press 🎤 www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews... #STEM #sciencematters #picturebooks #kidsbooks #hiddenfigures #Blackscientist #Blackprofessor
kirkusreviews.com
SPARK | Kirkus Reviews
A warm salute to an undersung Black scientist.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 16/06/2025
SWAT Team Robot Successfully Dismantles Black Man theonion.com/swat-te...
SWAT Team Robot Successfully Dismantles Black Man
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
I’m begging neuroscientists to please decide if “Population Neuroscience” will henceforth refer to groups of people or groups of neurons 😭😭
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
🤎🤲🏾✨
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
My best friend was there 🥹👏🏾👏🏾
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
Why does Delta airlines label me Mrs? Not that they need to know my marital status at all, bc it’s Dr!
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
What happens if you wear an overnight lip balm in the daytime? Do all nighttime products need SPF to make them safe in the sun?
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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Pittsburgh showing up to say No Kings!
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Whatever ancient secret South Africans have in their music, I hope it never dies. Any genre they touch turns to gold. I’m just blessed to be on the same planet to hear it 🙏🏾😩
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Reposted by Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa)
Vic Hurtowy @vichurtowy.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
True story bro.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Check me out! Won last year's Young Explorer Award from AAAS/Science and I get to present my work in Switzerland next week 😎 youngexploreraward.nomisfoundation.ch
youngexploreraward.nomisfoundation.ch
NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award – 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Sooo everyone else in my F99/K00 fellowship got their termination notices but I didn’t. My work *and* my mechanism are both DEI What gives?
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Science Magazine @science.org · 02/05/2025
In a blow to many foreign medical researchers who rely on U.S. funding, the NIH has announced that by the end of September, it will halt what are known as “foreign subawards,” in which U.S. researchers share their grant money with overseas collaborators. scim.ag/42UpRyQ
scim.ag
‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage
Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than “subawards” from U.S. scientists
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
HOW DO YOU DE-FUND PBS, NPR, NSF, NIH, FDA, CDC, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION??? LIKE WHAT ELSE IS THERE??????????? PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE POST OFFICE????
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Reposted by Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa)
boehninglab @boehninglab.com · 02/05/2025
Budget released today: 40% cut to NIH 50% cut to NSF If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 02/05/2025
Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
NIH is ending billions of dollars in foreign subawards, jeopardizing thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more. Unless foreign researchers secure funding directly from NIH by October — a tall order for any researcher — clinical trials abroad and other research will shut down.
nature.com
Exclusive: NIH to end billions of dollars in foreign research grants
Move by US biomedical agency jeopardizes thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
WHAT (and i cannot emphasize this enough) THEE FUCK
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I'm personally working on putting my time where my values lie. I'll be attending. mobilize.us/s/TXzddI
mobilize.us
Democracy Movement Call · Declaration for American Democracy Coalition
The House has passed the dangerous SAVE Act, but the fight isn’t over. It’s time to move together. Join us for a national movement call to break down what’s at stake, connect the dots between federal...
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Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken @papawoof.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
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Christian Cazares, Ph.D. @fleabrained.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
SfN reversed their decision, THE WORKSHOP IS ON, it will center around communicating neuroscience to non-English speaking communities, see you at SfN 2025!!!!
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The Onion @theonion.com · 15/04/2025
It Only Tuesday
theonion.com
It Only Tuesday
WASHINGTON, DC—After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and being stuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from their jobs, millions of Americans were dishearte...
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
In our first “Postdoc perspectives” essay, @fleabrained.bsky.social and @maribel-patino.bsky.social explain how grassroots organizations led by trainees are stepping up to provide career and mentorship guidance for neuroscience students from marginalized backgrounds. #neuroskyence bit.ly/4csFx0B
bit.ly
As federal funders desert mentorship programs for marginalized students, trainee-led initiatives fill the gap
Grassroots organizations, led by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, are stepping up to provide neuroscience career training and guidance for students from marginalized backgrounds—and…
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Tristan Snell @tristansnell.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Forcing people to pay $130 for a passport in order to vote is just a Jim Crow poll tax by another name. It is blatantly unconstitutional.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
It’s honestly just another DEI cut. GRFP always had a focus on diversity, outreach, and pipeline strengthening (look up the history and the predecessor programs). As a 2015 recipient, I’m devastated. First Ford, then DSPAN, now GRFP.
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Democrats @democrats.org · 05/04/2025
Massive #HandsOff rallies across the country 🔥🔥🔥
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 05/04/2025
Spectacular view of 100,000 people attending the #HandsOff march in NYC
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Nate Blouin @nateforutah.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
The American people have risen up and they are PISSED AS HELL. #HandsOff
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I wish I could talk to Dean McLeod at this point in my life 😞 ( #WashU grads know what I mean )
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
My uni received a letter from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, demanding that it hand over information on all Chinese international graduate students, claiming that they are a threat to national security. wtf.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
To the 8 people that congratulated me for returning to DuoLingo: I was just getting rid of red bubbles on my home screen. My Swahili has regressed to “hakuna matata” and “jambo”. Please respect my privacy at this time 😂
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Upon reflection, I think the reason my return to the US these past 2 months have been so calm, routine-driven, and peaceful is bc underneath my exterior, there is a fiery rage so uncontrollable that if I turn the release valve even a tiny bit, I'll absolutely lose it. So that's how I'm doing!
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
This is Seth Milchik stan account henceforth
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Not an HBCU band with Milchik as drum major!!!!! I'm screamingggg #SeveranceSky
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Not the Chicago bulls theme song for Kier 😭 #SeveranceSky
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
I love being Black. We're so sensory! "Listen, chile" "Loooooook" "You hear meee??" "Girl, I see you!" "I felt that fr"
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Bluetorial: Non-Competitive Renewal (Continuation) Awards Normally, multiyear NIH grants are paid with awards each year, pending administratively reviewed progress reports. “NIH” has been slow in making these awards. This has led to $1.83 B being withheld from institutions through February 2025.
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of homer simpson holding a card
ALT: a cartoon of homer simpson holding a card
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American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE) @aimbe-official.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
AIMBE's new fact sheets highlighting the NIH & NSF as economic engines have dropped at lnkd.in/ePRGWqnC! Did you know that every $1 in NIH research funding yielded $2.56 in new economic activity in the U.S.? NIH-funded research also supported over 400,000 jobs across the nation in FY2024!
A fact sheet of NIH FY2024 economic impact.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
I can't wait for the day when scientists learn that marketing is everything. That jargon is not always best. That scientists are humans too. These are simple lessons that allude the best of us. (see also: don't be a dick, and people will want to collaborate) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Catchy, clear, concise: three-part phrases boost research paper citations
Memorable ‘tripartite’ phrases in titles make studies more likely to be read and cited.
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Nature Reviews Bioengineering @natrevbioeng.nature.com · 18/03/2025
ICYMI: Defining the clinical niche for photoacoustic imaging
nature.com
Defining the clinical niche for photoacoustic imaging
Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s44222-025-00284-8Biomedical imaging continues to advance, providing ever more refined methods to diagnose and monitor diseases. Photoacoustic imaging, a hybrid modality that…
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Christian Cazares, Ph.D. @fleabrained.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
if you were a university admin, what are the sorts of things you'd need from trainees to help us with bridge funding? i.e. impact of funding loss, like samples lost, collaborations disrupted, paper revisions interrupted, etc
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Settling into my apartment despite the chaos of my funding situation... The name of my NIH fellowship and my work itself have the terms "diversity" and "inclusive" in them. We move! Life continues, and I'm grateful!
Selfie in a large mirror in a living room with a couple of plants, a large sectional couch with pillows, a couple of tables. I'm wearing a green jacket, a black crop top, and jeans.
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
But seriously, I’m an avocado toast away from financial ruin over here wtaf is going onnn
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Quiet as it’s kept, spring is actually a 2nd leather jacket season for the girlies 👩🏾‍🎤
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Preparing for Seppuku (read: checked my light bill 😭😭😭)
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Defiant Jazz (aka Dr. Kwasa) @jkwasa.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
That’s the plan! But also… that’s been the plan since I was like 14. Not saying it’s healthy, but it’s effective!
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 06/03/2025
Scientists who are actively against fascism because fascism is bad, not just because sometimes it hurts scientists, are my people
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