#academia

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Do fellow US scientists have advice on what I'm supposed to do here. Am I just not going to have a job after spending years getting a PhD, do I move to another country, what options are we actually considering here.

How do I just not spend the next year(s) in despair.

https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-fires-nsf-s-oversight-board

PhD position open: The weather forecast for groundwater recharge events

Please share!

We are seeking a PhD researcher with expertise in groundwater, climatology or meteorology, interested in tackling the question:

• What weather events replenish groundwater and how do climate influences change this?

• Our aim is to provide regional stakeholders with the first weather forecast for groundwater recharge …

http://andy-baker.org/2026/04/23/phd-position-open-the-weather-forecast-for-groundwater-recharge-events/

That's how it can be! The @universityofgroningen officially promotes presence of its staff and students. My staff profile includes the Mastodon button [1]. The University Library @Bibliothecaris promotes and through and @bibliothecaris_channel [2].

[1] https://www.rug.nl/staff/g.s.leppert/
[2] https://www.rug.nl/library/fediverse?lang=en

Screenshot of my university of Groningen profile showing a Mastodon button and link to the Mastodon presence. This screenshots focuses on the button only. The page reads: G.S. (Gerald) Leppert Dr. Gerald Leppert (Ph.D.), Senior Economist, Climate Change Adaptation Profile picture of G.S. (Gerald) Leppert Faculty of Science and Engineering E-mail: g.s.leppert@rug.nl Homepage Mastodon
Screenshot of my university of Groningen profile showing a Mastodon button and link to the Mastodon presence. The page reads: G.S. (Gerald) Leppert Dr. Gerald Leppert (Ph.D.), Senior Economist, Climate Change Adaptation Profile picture of G.S. (Gerald) Leppert Faculty of Science and Engineering E-mail: g.s.leppert@rug.nl Homepage Mastodon Field/Discipline: Political Science Development & Transition Economics Micro-economics, Industrial Organization and Game Theory Expertise Climate change adaptation • social risk management • social protection • public health • development economics • rural development • cooperative studies • health care financing • climate change – Research and evaluation methods • rigorous impact assessments (randomised control trials (RCTs) and quasi-experiments) • mixed-methods designs • quantitative surveys • theory-based designs • causal analysis • evidence synthesis.
Screenshot of the University of Groningen library website: The UB and the Fediverse - embracing open science communication and digital autonomy The University of Groningen Library (UB) uses Mastodon as its primary communication channel with the academic community. We recently launched our video channel on PeerTube. With this step, we're joining the broader Fediverse ecosystem of decentralized, non-commercial social networks. The University Library is committed to open science and digital autonomy. We want to promote open principles in our communication strategy as well. We believe that supporting academic staff at the University of Groningen and beyond in their open research and teaching practices requires a credible communication approach that ensures digital autonomy and self-determination. This prompted our decision to switch to alternative social networks that better align with academic values and the pursuit of knowledge.

I am leaving the university system, possibly forever, at the end of this month. I will be living in the woods, studying mathematics and (hopefully) farming enough to survive. I have posted an essay explaining why I'm doing this on my website:

https://aten.cool/leaving_university_2026.html

Here comes another of my random "hey do I know any..." posts.

Hey, do I know anyone who knows about EXORCISTS?

And what about PILGRIMS?

Or PIRATES?

Or ALCHEMY?

It's for Writing the Occult, so they need to be comfortable presenting on Zoom (but will receive token pay for their efforts)

“Opportunity for Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to carry out research in the areas of peace and conflict studies, political violence or state repression at the University of Mannheim, Germany.”

“The recipient will be part of my team at the University of Mannheim and carry out their own theory-driven empirical research broadly on the topics of peace and conflict, political violence and state repression. The fellowship may last from 6 to 24 months and can be divided into up to three stays within three years.”

The Fellowship includes a monthly stipend of of 3,000 EUR, moving and travel allowance.”

“To be eligible:

- you need to have a PhD in political science
- you need to have an excellent publication record relative to your academic age
- you are not a German citizen and you do not have a degree from a German …

Just did a tiny consulting job - essentially speedrunning @qgis print composer for academic multi panel figure making.

...with a little intuitive geo guessing and a sprinkle of composition/ visual flow theory.

Result?

A year long pain point solved in a few hours.

I'm more than happy to do full day workshops on this - consider hiring me as part of your next writing retreat / conference. Can also work with matplotlib/cartopy and Inkscape ;)

Hello ! Thanks to my new DFF grant, I'm now looking to hire a PhD student to join me at AAU in Aalborg 🇩🇰 to work on "usable decentralization", i.e. on making distributed and federated cloud services accessible to the everyday user. For more details, see link below, and please don't hesitate to DM me with questions!

https://www.vacancies.aau.dk/phd-positions/show-vacancy/vacancyId/895183

yet another case of "don't comply in advance, assholes"--turns out it was both illegal and unnecessary (as well as shortsighted and immoral) to comply with EO's scrubbing DEI in higher ed. who knew!

https://apnews.com/article/dei-education-department-lawsuit-appeal-ad150d5ab7747b9c782bc381890e5c8f

Twice in two days I've seen academics advertising publications or postdoctoral positions which are all excited about their use of commercial LLMs ("AI") for supposedly innovative research.

What the actual fuck, you guys?

Any academic doing this should be considered, at best, technologically illiterate or, at worst, to have a complete lack of moral centre to their practice. In either case, they're not worthy of academic positions.

Fucking exhausting.