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Yes this!! But not just trains BETWEEN cities, but also reliable mass transit IN the city too. Everyone says they want the bullet train loop in Texas, but I ask what good is it to get from Austin to DFW fast by train if I still need a car to get around once I’m there??

Thanks to this grant we will be hiring!! Our grad position ad is already live with more opportunities forthcoming. But if you’re interested in postdoc or technician positions, please reach out! fuesslab.wp.txstate.edu/opportunities/

Alright now that I’m home I guess it’s time to officially announce some really good news: I have received an NIH R35 MIRA!! This award will fund five years of research in my group using Aiptasia to study context dependency and GxGxE interactions in animal-microbe symbioses!

I’ve been traveling for over 24 hours, ran through LAX to not miss my connection, and am utterly exhausted. Consequently I have no tolerance for the jerk in front of me who thinks it’s ok to recline their seat on a 2.5 hour flight. (My intrusive thoughts really want to kick the back of bros seat)

How it feels having secured the largest grant of my career in this climate… (Of course with new OMB rules that explosion could be coming for me too… but at least I kicked the can a little farther down the road)

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Those NOA vibes (kiwi edition)

Please #ICRS2026 I’m begging you, use the microphone!!!! Seriously the background noise is significant in a lot of rooms, and many people have hidden disabilities. Just use the mic. And organizers, please do not hold another conference without figuring out how to have live captions.

Finally, at 3:30, Brooke Sienkiewicz will be talking about the microbiome side of Erin’s SCTLD dataset! All in all a big day for the lab!

More talks today at #ICRS2026 from the Symbiommunity Lab (+ friends)! PhD student Erin Shilling will be presenting on another SCTLD dataset from her dissertation. Room 504 at 10:20!! Then at 2:45 in the same room, Nick Jones will be sharing an update from our SCTLD-environment study!

Also more generally, if you’re here and looking for new opportunities in evolutionary ecology, immunology, and symbiosis of cnidarians, find me! I’m hiring for just about every position you could imagine! Exciting things on the horizon. #ICRS2026

If you’re planning your afternoon schedule at #ICRS2026, I’ll be speaking on a multi-institutional project investigating how holobiont interactions shape resistance and response to SCTLD. 4:15 in room 515!

Feeling those “award prepared” vibes…

Every time Atomic by Colony House comes up on my Spotify I can’t help but laugh at the “explicit” label and the fact that the CCM girlies got their panties in a wad cause Stephen Curtis Chapmans kids used the word “asshole”as a direct reference to the DISNEY movie “The Kid” 🤣

Not quite office door worthy, but the dim sum that preceded it was fantastic.

Girls come on.. leave the Hawaiian shirts at conferences to the men? I don’t think so! #evol2026 (Also if you get this reference and get my shirt we should be friends)

As a horse owner, I am very much not ok right now. Literally thinking about bubble wrapping my guy for the entirety of the near future.

One more talk from my lab today at #Evol2026. Postdoc @calebcbutler.com will be presenting on our collaborative project with @raulgoch.bsky.social searching for conserved mechanisms of cnidarian symbioses. Come hear more about this exciting project.

Also a reminder that I’m recruiting students (and a tech), so come find me if you’re interested!! I’ll be at our lovely TXST Biology booth during coffee breaks and poster sessions to talk about all the exciting graduate opportunities at our institution.

Gearing up for a full first day at #Evol2026 which includes two presentations from my lab group! I’ll be talking this morning about recent work investigating patterns of disease resilience in tropical corals. Then tonight MS student Carly Travers has a poster on her thesis studying immune memory!

Fighting jet lag on a 24 hour travel day with a 5 hour layover is freaking rough. Seven more hours til I can sleep… For now taking in gorgeous views of Minneapolis.