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Rachel Poretsky

@rporetsky.bsky.social
1.8K followers 692 following 376 posts

Professor in Microbial Ecology, mostly aquatic and wastewater. Public health. Bike/transit enthusiast. LCI. Mom. Vegan. Compact-sized. Brooklyn —> Chicago with lots of stops on the way.

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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Oh, also, since we last spoke, I took up guitar. Highly recommend learning a new trick as an old dog. It’s humbling and exhilarating.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
In honor of the transit bill that was passed in the middle of the night last night, saving public transit in Illinois from certain disaster, here’s a picture of my cargo bike dressed up as a @chicagocta.bsky.social train for Halloween.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
So gross. Starting on the front page, too, along with an article about durian. As if there’s a shortage of news to report on.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
I’ll be speaking at a Chicago @standupforscience.bsky.social teach-in! 📅 Date & Time: Saturday, August 30, 12:00 PM CST 📍 Location: Lincoln Park Branch, Chicago Public Library (and online) 1150 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 🔗 Register here: act.standupforscience.net/events/teach...
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Apparently it’s #WorldBreastfeedingWeek2025 so here’s a picture from my recent visit to the @yiddishbookcenter.bsky.social of a 1926 poster promoting breastfeeding.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Perfect shirt to wear to give comment at the Board meeting, @tomflood.bsky.social- the Bike Plan passed, btw, in spite of MANY neighbors up in arms about losing their parking to bike lanes (so predictable.)
My fellow Bike Walk Oak Park member delivering public comment at a Village Board Meeting wearing a black Rovelo Creative tshirt that reads in white letters “I just wanted to bike my kids to school. Now I spend more time at city hall than at home.”
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I like this mug
White mug with a picture of a frog wearing a fedora and green text that says “my tummy hurts and I’m mad at the government.”
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Good first day at the WEF wastewater surveillance workshop. Complied with the selfie request for #PipesToPublicHealth
Selfie in front of a wastewater surveillance backdrop with the date (July 9-10), location (Madison, WI), and silly poop emojis with binoculars.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Newest addition to my fleet. Most things are terrible but new bikes are not.
My new-to-me Pashley Princess bike in black with a cute wicker basket, parked in from of my wild, native parkway.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
I found my people! @fung4l.bsky.social #ASMicrobe @svahausa.bsky.social
Three microbiologists, one of them me, wearing three different Svaha microbiology dresses. One has colorful microbes, one colorful petri dishes, and one blue microbes.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
What a tornado watch sky tonight!
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
My science conferences should take a tip from my bike conferences and end sessions with a sing-along! So fun(ner) than cars!
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
“Everyone will be using Segways in the future!” -some misguided Amtrak designer a few years ago.
Segway restraint area on the new(ish) midwest Amtrak trains.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
What a day! Led my first @bikebusworld.bsky.social bike bus this morning, which was a smashing success. Brief Amtrak delay, but made it to #ILBWS25 just in time for @tomflood.bsky.social’s presentation.
Some riders on this morning’s bike bus
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Yup, same.
Uhh, everything’s under control situation normal
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
When you’re me, your vacation includes walking through a city’s first sewer system! @mtl.org Pointe-à-Callière
View walking through a lit up sewer with a bright manhole above and projections on the wall that moved like flow.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Post a warning
Danger People (changed from Men) Working Above
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Almost as good as the sticker is the info for the squid hotline (!!) that came with it!
Text “SQUID” to 1-833-724-8398 (SCI TEXT) for squid facts. Also, a QR code for an origami squid tutorial.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Most things are awful except that I got to bike with my kids to school this morning (on their own bikes, instead of the bakfiets for a change!) before continuing my commute to work with a friend. #bikechi
Me and two smaller humans on bikes. Kids’ faces have been covered with heart eye emojis because I heart them.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
It was cold and snowy/drizzly in Chicago, but not too cold to #StandUpForScience
A sign that says, “IT’S NOT A CONSPIRACY. YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND IT” being held by a rally attendee under the giant Calder statue.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Is there a more appropriate shirt to wear to meet a supercomputer? Colleagues say “cool,” kids say “cringe.” @svahausa.bsky.social 🖥️ 🧬
Me wearing a Python code shirt, standing in front of a supercomputer and next to a sign describing it.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Me and my little in matching jackets @bikelaneuprising.bsky.social
Reflective jackets in the dark, humans invisible
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
With full bellies and plenty of caffeine, we’re deep into command line interface afternoon at the BV-BRC @bvbrc.bsky.social workshop! 🖥️ 🧬 🧪
Marcus Nguyen does it all: teaches the CLI, fields questions, and types while everyone is watching with few errors.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Day 1 of the weeklong 2025 BV-BRC @bvbrc.bsky.social workshop at Argonne is in the books. Thanks to curious, enthusiastic participants from near and far, as well as amazing workshop leaders! ~65 attendees, 3 screens, and countless cups of coffee. 🖥️ 🧬 🧪
View from the back of part of the room as the incomparable Rebecca Wattam enthusiastically closes the day at the workshop.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
One of my favorite designs from @marlasrose.bsky.social www.veganstreet.com/shop-vegan-f...
Vegan for everything: the animals, our water, world hunger, the rainforest, compassion, wildlife, our health, peace, our planet.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
My husband volunteers at our local repair cafe and fixed up this gem for someone and now I’m listening to “Rachel’s mix 1996”
A recently repaired boom box
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Super proud of my kiddos who spoke at last night’s Village Board meeting to demand safer streets for walking and biking. At least my local gov’t isn’t in shambles.
One of my kids addressing the Village Board
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Also, I flipped my wet hair in -8F this morning just to see it freeze. (UIC is closed, so no bad ass biking to working today.)
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
12 years of Chicago (+ being a woman of a certain age IYKYK) means 35 degrees F feels like a heatwave.
View of my feet in the snow with capri pants and sneakers because it’s warm out.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Saw this poster at the IL Railway Museum (16h btwn NY and Chicago); the fastest route now takes 19ish hours. Ludicrous.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
My CV, mom’s fridge magnet style. Just missing Hebrew University.
Magnets on my mom’s fridge from almost all the places I studied/trained: Brandeis, Marine Biological Lab, Tulane, University of Georgia, Caltech, and Georgia Tech.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Chag sameach!
One regular menorah and too itty bitty ones (my kids’) that are lit with birthday candles.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
The only Christmas I celebrate is the CTA Christmas train. Hope my goyish friends have a Christmas as merry as this public transit delight.
Me on the CTA Christmas train wearing a light-up CTA Christmas train sweater and wearing a Chicago bike themed knit cap.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
The BV-BRC @bvbrc.bsky.social team will be offering a Bioinformatics Workshop on Feb 24-28, 2025, at Argonne National Lab near Chicago, IL. Learn to analyze and explore bacterial and viral pathogen data. Register and/or share! www.bv-brc.org/docs/news/20... 🧬 🖥️
Flyer promoting the upcoming BV-BRC workshop https://www.bv-brc.org/docs/news/2024/2024-11-25-anl-workshop.html
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Amtrak from Chicago to Champaign/Urbana meant I got to experience the Union Station Great (deck the) Hall!
Giant xmas tree in Chicago’s Union Station decorated with train signs and lights
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Happy day after Brown Friday!
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Yes, I know today is Buy Nothing Day, but I pre-ordered this months ago and it just arrived. Bluesky, I LOVE the #CTA Christmas train and bus so freaking much.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Hello Pittsburgh and #ASMCUE and #ABRCMS. Amtrak is a delightful way to travel- arrived early and walked 5 min to the hotel.
Photo of the dining car on the Amtrak Floridian
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Yep, I’ve gotten this many times too.
Giant bakfiets cargo bike with a bright yellow raincover
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
This year, my cherry tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are still going.
A Facebook memory from 5 years ago of me bundled up with my bakfiets cargo bike in the snow, saying “nothing like a nice bike ride on a lovely fall day… in Chicago”
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
Teaching and empowering kids on bikes.
Kids seen from behind, riding bikes in the street
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
My daily commute (~9 miles each way) is pretty in the fall. #bikechi #bikecommute #carfree
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 12/09/2023
At a small meeting in a beautiful place to learn about AI and LLM’s and potential wrt to biology/genomics/my kind of data.
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Rachel Poretsky @rporetsky.bsky.social · 05/09/2023
I do these every year with my class but I’d love for them to be even more dramatic.
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