Benjamin Gill
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sedgeochem.bsky.social
Benjamin Gill
@sedgeochem.bsky.social
980 followers 540 following 280 posts
Biogeochemist. Dad. Earth Historian. Gardener. Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. He/him.
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Reposted by Benjamin Gill
cosynomad.bsky.social
Hello Geoscience folks ⚒️ We are advertising again for a new colleague at the TT level in structural geology. Start date of August 2027.
www.geosociety.org/jobs

(FYI, the last search resulted few applicants, so please encourage colleagues and students to apply this round)
Geoscience Job Board
Explore open positions on GSA's geoscience job board, or post your organization's jobs.
www.geosociety.org
September 15, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
gfun.earth
NSF GEO webinar summary: we have reduced programs from 15 down to 3, we have no deadlines, we have no guidelines on project size, duration or budget, we have no money
September 15, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
jonlambert.bsky.social
"For many U.S. scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency they know and loved died on 10 September."
September 15, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
standupforscience.net
There's A LOT of ways the Trump admin is currently attacking & decimating American science.

Here's a breakdown of what they are doing, and what you can do about it. 🧵
September 14, 2026 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
costasamaras.com
This will be bad for:
- the students
- the research progress
- the universities
- the towns the universities are in
- the companies hiring students
- the states the universities are in
- the national economy
- national security
- the country
- the world
mclem.org Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 4d
The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week.

It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.
September 13, 2026 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
kairyssdal.bsky.social
So very stupid
mclem.org Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 4d
The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week.

It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.
September 12, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
daverodland.bsky.social
Hmm, okay, I guess I'm supposed to have opinions or something?
#MinCup26 #calcite

In the negligent absence of a good photomicrograph of an echinoid spine under crossed polars, I guess I've gotts go mollusk.
daverodland.bsky.social Dave Rodland @daverodland.bsky.social · 16d
Finishing #InverteFest up with #MolluskMonday and #MineralMonday both on deck - a geodized clam! Here we have sparry calcite crystals nucleated on the valve interior, a product of early diagenesis in warm, carbonate saturated groundwater. 🧪⚒️🦪💎
Calcite in clam shell, Okeechobee Co., Florida. A geodized clam, with sparry crystals nucleating on the interior surface, visible due to shell fracture.
September 11, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
spahn711.bsky.social
#TeamCalcite always and forever. Here's a small taste of calcite's beauty with a look at my personal calcite collection.
September 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM
sedgeochem.bsky.social
It's hard watching an organization that did a lot of good, inspired and supported generations of scientists, and made the United States a global destination for science be dismantled and twisted.

Was it perfect, no, but NSF and we don't deserve whatever this is.
NSF leadership in a new golden age of science
The U.S. National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to keep American discovery at the frontier. That mission has not changed. The science and technology ecosystem around it has...
www.nsf.gov
September 11, 2026 at 12:58 AM
sedgeochem.bsky.social
Got to go with #calcite. Its utility for understanding past environments where it forms has kept me enthralled since I first started working in a lab. #MinCup26
September 11, 2026 at 12:26 AM
sedgeochem.bsky.social
Its pretty clear that this framework is just using the facade of funding science to funnel public money toward private entities owned by benefactors of politicians.

www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-lea...
NSF leadership in a new golden age of science
The U.S. National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to keep American discovery at the frontier. That mission has not changed. The science and technology ecosystem around it has...
www.nsf.gov
September 11, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
alexwitze.bsky.social
The National Science Foundation has not had a director since April 2025, but is undertaking very significant structural changes in how it funds US science. No permanent leadership appears anywhere in sight.
dangaristo.bsky.social Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 6d
Full letter follows:
FROM: TO: SUBJECT: Brian Stone, Performing the Duties of the Director The Science and Technology Community NSF Leadership in a New Golden Age of Science The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), first envisioned in Vannevar Bush's report Science: The Endless Frontier, was created in 1950 to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to sustain the broad foundations of American scientific leadership. Our core mission has not changed. We are redoubling our commitment to foundational research, which lays the foundation for the next generation of technologies that will strengthen economic competitiveness, enhance national security, and improve quality of life for all Americans. At the same time, the U.S. science and technology (S&T) enterprise has changed and America has entered a period of extraordinary scientific possibility. New instruments of discovery are enabling new lines of inquiry across every field of science and engineering, and the frontiers of research are advancing in laboratories of every kind, in every part of the country. Industry and philanthropy play a growing role in both basic and applied research. The greatest periods of American scientific progress have depended on institutions capable of recognizing new possibilities, empowering exceptional researchers, and adapting as the practice of science has changed. NSF is taking decisive action to meet this moment, introducing new and ambitious ideas that capitalize on the changes in the scientific ecosystem to advance our core mission. We are embracing a portfolio approach that delivers the highest return on our investments; strengthening the agency's ability to measure, learn from, and improve how we evaluate and support science; enabling ambitious, multidisciplinary inquiry at the scientific frontiers; harnessing AI to accelerate discovery; and investing in exceptional students and early- career researchers to support as much scientific creativity as possible. Many of these changes at NSF have already beg…
September 10, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
melissaberke.bsky.social
Let your elected officials hear from you. Push back. It’s the option right now.
September 10, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
carlbergstrom.com
I started translating the announcement into plain English, but got too depressed to continue before I even reached the most pernicious parts in the "full letter" linked.
Dear Colleagues, The U.S. National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to keep American discovery at the frontier. That mission has not changed. But the political landscape has. So it all ends. Now. We've heard this message clearly from researchers across disciplines and settings. Science today is no longer a straight line from laboratory to application. We aim to cause maximal harm to universities by diverting funds elsewhere. Rather than investing public funding to generate massive positive externalities, we prefer allowing billionaires to set the scientific rese agenda . Someone—you’ll never guess who—convinced us to pour what money we do spend into AI. To meet this moment, NSF is embracing a portfolio approach, where much more of our funding can be diverted to industry. We are expanding who carries out NSF-supported work and how, to enable ambitious, multidisciplinary inquiry at the scientific frontier, where frontier is defined as what we want to fund. We will find and support exceptional students and early-career researchers, at the stage when research creativity is high, so long as they US citizens of the right kind. Our new Office of Metascience will implement unproven methods to make a show of assessing the effectiveness of new initiatives, and more importantly will leverage that Gold Standard Science bullshit to eliminate programs in geosciences, basic biology, all aspects of social science, and anything else that makes the Christian right uncomfortable. We’e already pretty much gutted the entire agency. Funding is at a near stand-still, and the agency has become unresponsive to researchers to a degree that was unimaginable only two years ago. We know none of this succeeds without you, NSF's staff, reviewers, awardees, students, and partners across academia and industry. NSF's role is to create conditions for exceptional science to happen more often and more frequently. We are redoubling our commitment to do so through these efforts.
September 10, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
widdowquinn.bsky.social
I've been grateful to receive NSF funding in the past.

I don't think this announcement has anything to do with science. "Our new Office of Metascience will rigorously assess the effectiveness of new initiatives" is a red flag.

www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-lea...
NSF leadership in a new golden age of science
The U.S. National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to keep American discovery at the frontier. That mission has not changed. The science and technology ecosystem around it has...
www.nsf.gov
September 10, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
alexwild.bsky.social
Ultimately, this letter from NSF is an announcement that universities will be funded a lot less and politically-connected industry will be funded a lot more. Fancy words around old-fashioned corruption.
NSF leadership in a new golden age of science
The U.S. National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to keep American discovery at the frontier. That mission has not changed. The science and technology ecosystem around it has...
www.nsf.gov
September 10, 2026 at 7:49 PM
sedgeochem.bsky.social
I know there is a lot going on (that's likely the point) and just to echo what is already been passed around here, but in 2026, National Science Foundation research awards will be at a 40 year low.

grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses...
Agency Pulse: Grantmaking at NSF
An independent, up-to-date, grant-level record of federal science funding disruptions in the United States.
grantwitness.org
September 9, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
dangaristo.bsky.social
Grantmaking has leveled off, so it looks like NSF will make around 6,200 new grants—down from an average of ~11,000. That's a historic low, not seen since the 1980s, when NSF was a far smaller organization. Left was our projection three weeks ago, right is the current data.
Previous plot of NSF new grants projected FY26 would be ~6100 Current data for total new grants at NSF
September 9, 2026 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
liz-hearn.bsky.social
If you care about Earth science in the US, please sign up for the NSF GEO virtual office hour Sept 15 with GEO directorate head Joydip Kundu! NSF leadership needs to hear directly that people care and are concerned about GEO. Maxxing out their Zoom tier sends a message.

www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-g...
NSF GEO Virtual Office Hour: Updates from the NSF Directorate for Geosciences
Join directorate leadership for updates and information.
www.nsf.gov
September 7, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
Please let your reps know how you feel about Russ Vogt's leadership, which includes an ongoing pillaging of Congressionally appropriate funds to support public science.

And this is as much an attack on higher education as it is public science funding.
September 7, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
maxkozlov.bsky.social
🚨 The NIH is moving to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in infectious-disease research projects to the DOD under a secret 10-year pact.

Here’s what’s happening inside “Operation Prevailing Edge” 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defense.
www.nature.com
September 4, 2026 at 10:25 PM
sedgeochem.bsky.social
Meme of actor David Mitchell in an SS officer's uniform asking "Are we the baddies".
September 6, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
mineralcup.bsky.social
#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 5
It's a fiery match of vibrant red #Cuprite and just as saturated orange #Orpiment battle for your votes!

VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...
RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...
Split photo of deep red, chunky cuprite crystals, clear and vibrant and shiny like pomegranate seeds and orpiment forming many round puffs of intensely orange spikes radiating out like sea urchin spines.
September 5, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Wonderful world of cephalopod evolution in deep time...
" Here we provide an overview of some exciting fields in
cephalopod research, where (in our biased opinion) the most impressive advances have been
made."
🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Morphological changes during the evolution from bactritids (top) to the first and slightly derived Devonian ammonoids and changes in ecology.
September 4, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
extinctmonsters.bsky.social
Was slumming it on fb and ig to see reactions to the Academy of Natural Sciences closing. It’s heartening that people are pissed. But it’s astonishing/enlightening how little understanding there is of what *any* museum is, who runs them, and how they’re funded.

🧵with dinosaur pics for attention
Museum display corral with cast skeleton of Tenontosaurus being attached by Deinonychus. Three baby Tenontosaurus following.
September 4, 2026 at 12:27 AM