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Valerie Tornini

@valetornini.bsky.social
775 followers 820 following 32 posts

Assistant Professor @ UCLA. Views my own.

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Reposted by Valerie Tornini
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Anyway, panic is a psy-op. Stay furious. Stay serious. Organize.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 17/09/2026
This Hispanic Heritage Month, we launched our first walking campaign: Closing the STEM Gap, One Step at a Time. ⁠ ⁠ From 9/15 - 10/31, our goal is to walk 1.5 million steps and raise $20k. 💚Join us today, walk with us as a fundraiser or make a gift: cientificolatino.com/walk-for-CL ⁠⁠ #WalkforCL
Flyer for Científico Latino's first walking campaign. Join us at cientificolatino.com/walk-for-CL
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 15/09/2026
🧬🔬 Applying to Competitive Graduate School Fellowships this year?⁠ ⁠ Join our webinar on "Applying to Graduate School Fellowships"⁠ with a focus on HHMI Gilliam, NIH F31, and NSF-GRFP. ⁠ 📅 Thursday, 10/1 @ 12pm ET⁠ 🔗 Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/applying-t... #CientificoLatino #CLAcademy⁠
Webinar on Applying to Graduate School Fellowships
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 11/09/2026
🧬🔬 How do I pick a research laboratory in graduate school and choose the right research advisor?⁠ ⁠ Científico Latino Academy's Graduate Student Webinar Series presents:⁠ "Choosing a Rotation Laboratory"⁠ ⁠ 📅 Tuesday, September 29h at 12pm ET⁠ ⁠ 🔗 Register: www.eventbrite.com/e/choosing-a...
CL Academy Webinar on Choosing a Rotation Laboratory
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 08/09/2026
We are so excited to announce our 2026 Científico Latino (CL) Academy class! Our 39 scholars are graduates of our GSMI 2025 program. Meet our 2026 CL Academy scholars: www.cientificolatino.com/cientifico-l... #CientificoLatino #CLAcademy
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 02/09/2026
We are so excited to announce our Graduate School Mentorship Initiative (GSMI) 2026 class. Our scholars are the next generation of scientific leaders! Meet our GSMI 2026 scholars: www.cientificolatino.com/gsmi-2026-sc...
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Research Corporation for Science Advancement @rescorp.org · 24/08/2026
Reminder: If you've been thinking about applying to Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, applications for the 2027 cohort are due Sept. 1. Info: wp.me/Pgj04D-9PX Thanks to our sponsors: @allenphilanthro.bsky.social, @kavlifoundation.org, and Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation.
Blue squiggly background with words "Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems" and orange banner with words "2027 applications due Sept. 1, 2026"
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 17/08/2026
Today is the 9th anniversary of founding Científico Latino!! ⁠⁠🎉🎉🎉 ⁠ Our co-founders, Robert Fernandez, PhD and Olivia Goldman PhD, PhD started Científico Latino on 08/16/17 during their doctoral studies with the vision that everyone deserves a chance to follow their dreams of becoming a scientist.⁠
Flyer celebrating the 9th year Founding Anniversary of Científico Latino.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 14/08/2026
Meet our Científico Latino Expert Bench 🎓🔬⁠ Our Científico Latino Academy Scholars now have access to 1:1 expert guidance from an interdisciplinary network of professionals across academia, biotech, education, and the arts. ⁠ Learn more here: www.cientificolatino.com/alumni
Flyer for Científico Latino Academy Expert Bench
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 03/08/2026
Our Graduate School Mentorship Initiative (GSMI) started in 2019 when three graduate students had a vision to make graduate school entry accessible for students from low-income, first-generation and underserved communities. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88T...
youtube.com
Científico Latino: Graduate School Mentorship Initiative (GSMI)
YouTube video by Científico Latino
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Crystal Rogers, PhD @rogerslabucd.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It was an honor to serve on the @socdevbio.bsky.social Engagement and Outreach committee as Chair for the last 3 years. Alas, my term is up and the new Chair of the EOC will be @valetornini.bsky.social from UCLA. Huge thanks to the #DevBio community! Also- thanks for the swag SDB! Love it! 😍
A wooden clock that says society for developmental biology A personalized placard A cool wooden clock
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 28/07/2026
Representation is important because it inspires the next generation of scientists that they do belong in STEM. Our community leads with brilliance, integrity, and passion in the research and scientific outreach they have worked on to improve the science and society as a whole.
Tatiana M. Vera, Ph.D., PhD in Clinical, Counseling, and Applied Psychology at Columbia University
Daniela Cossio, Ph.D., PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
Mariana Rocha, PhD, PhD in Neuroscience at Emory UniversityMelissa Ramirez, Ph.D., PhD in Organic Chemistry from UCLA
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 14/07/2026
Científico Latino is expanding its Junior Board to include motivated career professionals who want to play a role in helping us train the next generation of scientific leaders.⁠ ⁠⁠ Apply here: cientificolatino.com/juniorboard
Científico Latino flyer on expanding their Junior Board.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 13/07/2026
Científico Latino Academy is recruiting mentors for their 10-month mentorship program to support first-year graduate students at a critical time in their graduate studies. ⁠ ⁠ We are seeking mentors in all STEM fields!⁠ ⁠Learn more and apply here: www.cientificolatino.com/alumni%E2%81...
CL Academy Call for Mentors.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 09/07/2026
Cientifico Latino’s Expert Bench is launching this Fall 2026 where Cientifico Latino Academy scholars will be able to request a 1-hour meeting with an expert to discuss academic topics. Volunteer here: cientificolatino.com/expertbench
Científico Latino is recruiting for their Expert Bench.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 08/07/2026
Our First-Year Graduate Program is now officially called “Científico Latino Academy”. ⁠ ⁠ Join us in this new chapter of Científico Latino's growth to support the scientific pipeline from the college level to the STEM workforce. ⁠ Learn more here: www.cientificolatino.com/alumni
Flyer on Científico Latino Academy
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Leading Edge Fellows Program @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
We are thrilled to announce the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows! 40 remarkable postdocs pursuing transformative research in biological/biomedical sciences. This is the 7th Leading Edge cohort and we are so excited to welcome them! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Congratulations to the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows! 
Airi Yoshimoto, Yijun Yang, Alexandra Wells, Simran Virdi, Archana Venkataraman, Emery Usher, Marianna Tannus Ruckert, Wenzhi Song, Kathryn Shelley, Selin Schamiloglu, Julia Peloggia de Castro, Ines Patop, Ruhi Patel, Suranjana Pal, Bernie Simone Owusu Yaw, LaShae Nicholson, Sivapratha Nagappan Chettiar, Dallas Mould, Jessica Moore, Deka Mohamed, Sierra Marable, Annie Ly, Xi (Lucy) Lu, Deirdre Logsdon, Anna Lipkin, Ellen Lesser, Mia Konjikusic, Veronika Kondev, Cayla Jewett, Lucia Ichino, Erin Huiting, Maggie Horst, Isabella Gaeta, Martha Echevarria-Andino, Natasha Claxton, Sarah Cherkaoui, Nikita Bhalerao, Merci Best, Meenakshi Asokan, Alicer Andrew
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Excited to work on these exciting and timely collaborative projects! So grateful to @kavlifoundation.org and @rescorp.org for funding support 🙏
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 14/04/2026
Congratulations to our sixteen NSF-GRFP awardees and Honorable Mentions!!
Flyer of the 16 GSMI scholars and program alumni who received the NSF-GRFP Award or an Honorable Mention
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Happy to share our article on @cientificolatino.com's GSEC program: a national mentorship program for 1st-year STEM grad students, geared for those from underrepresented backgrounds. We review why programs like this are urgently needed & what we learned while running it 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202...
Screenshot of title and author list:
A strong start for sustained success: inclusivity through a national group mentorship program for first-year graduate students
Sergio R. Labra1,2,*, Valerie A. Tornini3,4,5*, Maria Pia Rodriguez Salazar6, Daniela M. Cossio7, Rebekah A. Gelpí8,^, Bryan E. Rubio Perez9, Yanitza M. Rodríguez10, Gerardo Leana Sandoval11, Kimberly Hernandez12, Olivia V. Goldman13,*,#, Robert W. Fernandez14,#,†
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Happy to share our article on @cientificolatino.com's GSEC program: a national mentorship program for 1st-year STEM grad students, geared for those from underrepresented backgrounds. We review why programs like this are urgently needed & what we learned while running it 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202...
Screenshot of title and author list:
A strong start for sustained success: inclusivity through a national group mentorship program for first-year graduate students
Sergio R. Labra1,2,*, Valerie A. Tornini3,4,5*, Maria Pia Rodriguez Salazar6, Daniela M. Cossio7, Rebekah A. Gelpí8,^, Bryan E. Rubio Perez9, Yanitza M. Rodríguez10, Gerardo Leana Sandoval11, Kimberly Hernandez12, Olivia V. Goldman13,*,#, Robert W. Fernandez14,#,†
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Pauli Group (posts by Andi Pauli) @pauligroup.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Switching fields or wanting to become an expert in #zebrafish research? The @mblscience.bsky.social 2026 Zebrafish Development & Genetics course offers a fantastic opportunity to learn from leaders in the field! Application deadline: March 2 Please spread the word! www.mbl.edu/education/ad...
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Society for Developmental Biology @socdevbio.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
#Postdocs! Going on academic job market? Apply for SDB GetHIRED! Take stock of what you want, know your options, prepare an outstanding job packet, organize your research & chalk talks, perfect your interview. Deadline: March 5 sdbonline.org/gethired
GetHIRED! REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN - Application due Thursday, March 5
Ideal for Postdoctoral Researchers
Academic Job Market Insight
-Take stock of what you want
-Know your options
-Prepare outstanding job packet materials
-Organize your research & chalk talks
-Perfect your interview & avoid the pitfalls
Course Features
-Six asynchronous online modules 
-Virtual meetings with an experienced facilitator
-Peer feedback, support, & expert advice
Course Dates: April 14 – June 23, 2026
Course Fee: SDB Members: $499; Non-Members: $599
Deadline: March 5, 2025
Society for Developmental Biology logo
QR Code for GetHIRED! website
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ICE must be destroyed 🏳️‍⚧️🏴 @miawong.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Happy to share our paper now out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social - and check out our thread about the findings at bsky.app/profile/vale...
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Leading Edge Fellows Program @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Candid photo of Zara Weinberg. She has short red hair, bangs and glasses. She is laughing.
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
What cell states are possible when they are missing key factors - Nanog, Pou5f3 (Oct4), & Sox19b (Sox2) - that are required for the first embryonic reprogramming steps? Follow along with our latest publication, finally out at doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #devbio #reprogramming #zebrafish #embryo (1/6)
Graphical abstract describing the main findings. Top, Nanog, Pou5f3, and Sox19b (NPS) work together for cellular reprogramming following fertilization of the egg and sperm in the embryo's maternal-to-zygotic transition. Clearance of the maternal program, plus activation of the zygotic and late zygotic genes expression programs later in development, together will enable gene expression programs towards cellular differentiation.
In maternal-zygotic NPS (mzNPS) mutant embryos, there is a failure of reprogramming and subsequently no gastrulation. However, when mzNPS embryonic cells are transplanted into wild type embryos, some cells survive and form mixed cell states, likely due to failed nuclear and cytoplasmic reprogramming. We find that some gene expression states, including primordial germ cell-like and motoneuron-like cell states, are able to develop in vivo, bypassing the loss of NPS-mediated embryonic reprogramming.
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Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 02/11/2025
The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, PPFP, has been a jewel in the crown for faculty development and recruitment at the University of California for years and the results have been an expanded faculty with almost 100% tenure rates — unprecedented success.
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Willow Coyote-Maestas @willowcoyote.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.
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Ricardo Zayas @zayaslab.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Please help distribute this announcement for the Ph.D. in Biology Program @stowersinstitute.bsky.social
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events. Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... 1/14
jeremymberg.github.io
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Jaweed Kaleem @jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
As of this week, every public university in California is under investigation from the Trump administration for alleged antisemitism www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Cal State universities now target of antisemitism probe by Trump administration
The Trump administration has launched a systemwide investigation into allegations of antisemitism at California State University and has started issuing subpoenas for employees' contact information.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
“I will end my career writing dissent, that is my future. And you understand that you’re writing for a future society. That dissents are not about today. Dissents are writing for a future society that will take that dissent, that will be ready for that dissent, & enact it” @nhannahjones.bsky.social
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Vera Kempe @vkempe.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
I wrote this for my US friends and colleagues, but also for all of us. Lessons from the past. open.substack.com/pub/verakemp...
open.substack.com
Scholarship Under Autocracy
We Have Been Here Before
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Jaweed Kaleem @jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Trump wants UCLA to pay $1.2 billion to settle allegations it violated civil rights law. I took a look at the more than 7,300-word proposed UCLA settlement. Here's the detailed breakdown of Trump's plan to remake one of the nation's top public campuses: www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Here are the details of Trump's $1.2-billion call to remake UCLA in a conservative image
The Times describes the details, for the first time, of the 28-page proposal the Trump administration has made to remake the UCLA campus.
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Office of Mayor Michelle Wu 吳弭 @mayorwu.boston.gov · 19/08/2025
Last week, Boston received a letter from AG Bondi threatening to prosecute officials and withhold funds unless we cooperate with carrying out mass deportations. The US Attorney General asked for a response by today, so here it is: stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures.
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Sasha Senderovich 🌻 @returnstosender.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.
I've now been allowed and asked to share more details about what's going down at the University of Oregon, which involves imminent announcement of firings, among others, of tenure-track and tenured faculty. Given the units impacted (see below), please  share this with your professional networks in related disciplines and start getting ready to put pressure (or begin putting pressure already) on the University of Oregon upper admin to abandon this alleged plan before they finalize it.

It appears that, with no prior consultations, the departments of Religion and Classics (two separate units), and the programs in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, German & Scandinavian, Judaic Studies, Arabic Studies, and Holocaust Studies (the latter five all parts of a previously-consolidated mega unit called the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages) are facing imminent announcement of elimination (expected the week of Sept 7), with layoffs of pre-tenure, tenured, and career faculty in these units. The reason given is "financial exigency" -- upper administrations of several universities across the country (and in blue states like Oregon also) appear to be giddy to use the context of Trump attacks on higher ed to dismantle the humanities.

Faculty at OU won a faculty union not long ago; this may be, in part, a retaliation for that, I've been told. The union is working with AAUP, etc.; my understanding is that the maximum spotlight is needed at this point.
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Neuroendocrinology and Behavior lab at UCLA @alwardlab-ucla.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
*Please read and share!* My NIH funds at UCLA were suspended last week. It's hard to find the words to describe the impact of these grant suspensions. I have felt speechless and heartbroken that people in my lab, my friends, colleagues, researchers, trainees, and undergrads 1/9
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
There is no nice, gentle way to say, “okay so a nation is, in effect, a currency, a military, and resource allocation. If you break all of those, you do not…have a country.”
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
The billion dollars is the least of it. It’s universities’ autonomy, independence, and integrity that Trump is really after. www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/p...
cnn.com
Trump administration seeking $1 billion settlement from UCLA | CNN Politics
The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, CNN has exclusively learned, marking the latest effort by the White House to shape higher ed...
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Well, this is a huge Executive Order power grab... www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... 1/3
whitehouse.gov
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/08/2025
The constitution. They sliced out the parts of the constitution that they don’t like from the government website. Yet another reminder that in an aspiring authoritarian government, you should never rely on online document as definitive sources.
techcrunch.com
Key sections of the US Constitution deleted from government's website | TechCrunch
Internet sleuths say the U.S. Constitution's website is now missing key sections from its website, including a key legal provision relating to habeas corpus, which protects citizens from unlawful dete...
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Danielle L. Schmitt 🔬 @schmittwitt.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
“It backfired,” said one senior administrator at UCLA, reflecting the sense of whiplash felt among many who were interviewed. “Within hours of announcing our settlement, the DOJ was on our back.” www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Ivy League universities paid hundreds of millions to settle with Trump. Is UCLA next?
President Trump's higher education battle comes to the University of California. After the Department of Justice found that UCLA had violated Jewish students' civil rights, the administration froze hu...
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🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Terence Tao (@teorth.bsky.social) has written a thread on Mastodon about the impact of the federal grant freeze to UCLA, particularly to his own field of Mathematics. UCLA's IPAM (Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics) could shut down entirely mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1149568...
mathstodon.xyz
Terence Tao (@tao@mathstodon.xyz)
The current administration in the US has, through various funding agencies such as the NSF and NIH, has recently suspended virtually all federal grants to my home university, UCLA (including my own p...
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Alicia Izquierdo @aliciaizquierdo.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Suspension of all grants to UCLA www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism
The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...
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Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Transitions in development – an interview with Jeffrey Farrell @jeffreyafarrell.bsky.social talks about becoming a group leader, his insights on advocacy for developmental biology and his belief in unifying single-cell biology with classical approaches. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 23/07/2025
Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens
theguardian.com
Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens
Malnourished medical staff say they are struggling to provide care to injured civilians, while recovery rates are also hit by
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