Carrie Wu
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carriewu.bsky.social
Carrie Wu
@carriewu.bsky.social
Evolutionary ecologist | Botanist 🌱 | Professor at University of Richmond (PUI 💪🏼) | displaced Pacific Northwesterner 🌲🏔️🌦️| PUI alumna | she/her
Reposted by Carrie Wu
"Her wit was as sharp as her convictions, and her honesty was refreshing and rare."

A wonderfully written (by @gbaucom.bsky.social) obituary for my grad school friend and Auburn University Prof. Vanessa Koelling, who passed away last week.

www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/m...
Vanessa Koelling Obituary - Montgomery, AL
Celebrate the life of Vanessa Koelling, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Leak Memory Chapel.
www.dignitymemorial.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
I'm hiring a full time fixed-term 1yr lab tech to assist with field and greenhouse projects related to floral evolution and plant reproductive ecology. Please share! Ideal start date early 2026.

jobs.clemson.edu/psc/ps/JOBS/...
November 24, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
I often say something similar - we’re one plant disease away from mass starvation, and protected by a ‘thin nerd line’ of plant pathologists
October 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Does anyone have good "plant herbivory" or "inducible defenses" lab for an introductory-ish level biology class that doesn't involve invasive herbivores? 🌱🐛
October 1, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Science academia folks (especially #PUIs): is your science building unlocked 24/7?

Totally not asking due to a policy change.
September 5, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
We recently received this photo of two photosynthesis instrument "cousins" doing their work at Rocky Mountain Biological Lab. The photo is courtesy Carrie Wu (@carriewu.bsky.social) and posted with permission.
August 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Our partners at the Virginia Department of Forestry are hiring an Invasive Species Specialist! This position will support the VDOF's invasive species initiatives in central and western Virginia. To learn more and apply visit ➡️ www.jobs.virginia.gov/jobs/invasiv...
July 31, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
“I would normally thank the NSF, but they terminated my fellowship”

- Speaker who just earned some drinks from the audience.
June 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Check out this interview with BSA member and BSA Director at Large for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Karolina Heyduk!

botany.one/2025/06/karo...
Karolina Heyduk: A Career Shaped by Desert Plants and Midnight Photosynthesis
Botany One interviews Dr Karolina Heyduk, a plant evolutionary biologist interested in the origins a unique type of photosynthesis.
botany.one
June 20, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Students attending #Evol2025
Stop by the University of Chicago Press booth to get a free year of American Society of Naturalists student membership and subscription to The American Naturalist. @asn-amnat.bsky.social
June 20, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Got a new op-ed in LNC/LancasterOnline this morning, on the importance of the curiosity-driven science the National Science Foundation is supposed to support

lancasteronline.com/opinion/colu...
Plant biologist from Lancaster reflects on Joshua trees and federal science funding [column]
Joshua trees are weird. I say this as an expert on Joshua trees.
lancasteronline.com
June 8, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
We need you--every single one of you-- in the US to stand up, right now, and fight for NSF, NIH, USGS, NASA, USDA. Agencies Congress empowered to serve the public with impactful science and innovation. This is not a drill. This is our last stand. After this, there will be nothing left to fight for.
May 9, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
scim.ag
May 8, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Advice needed 🌱🧬: How long have you used extra Qiagen Plant DNA extraction buffers with success? I've got lots of extras, and have purchased additional plastics in the past, especially for classes. But in light of tightening $$, hoping I can stretch this out further for lab, too.
May 6, 2025 at 3:15 PM
If you’ve ever needed to rush your kid to ER, or wondered how crushing of science will hurt all Americans/ humans, my friend and colleague, Dr. Smith’s short thread story is what you need.

Love your family.
Protect the scientist.
What freedom means.
On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n
May 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Thread with an email being sent to @asn-amnat.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social members today calling for a Tri-society week of action for NSF:

Dear members:
The tri-societies (ASN, SSE,SSB) are running a ‘Week of Action for NSF’. Your engagement is crucial.
May 5, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
🌿 Join iDigBio on May 6 at 1 PM ET for a webinar on how advocacy helped save the Duke Herbarium—and what we can learn moving forward.

BSA was proud to support the petition to save the herbarium—and now, we hope you'll help amplify this important event.

Event Info: www.idigbio.org/content/spec...
April 22, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Other Unis take note: stand up to these bullies in the #WarOnEducation
April 19, 2025 at 2:38 AM
This 👇👇👇
I will never stop being mad about the dire wolf/woolly mouse grift that Colossal Bioscience is doing. There are actual real conservation genetic programs out there that are begging for funding and these guys are just doing PR stunts and grossly over inflating their worth.
April 8, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
'Irreversible damage': 400 Fish and Wildlife firings could lead to extinctions in Joshua Tree

Not just as Joshua Tree, but a good story about impacts.
400 Fish and Wildlife firings could lead to extinctions in Joshua Tree
The loss of hundreds of Fish and Wildlife employees could have immediate and long-term impacts on wild places, including Joshua Tree National Park.
www.sfgate.com
March 24, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Plant evolutionary ecology has lost a very rare talent. Shu-Mei was a genuinely kind, whip-smart, reasonable, creative, bright light of a person.

www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/a...
Shu-Mei Chang Obituary - Athens, GA
Celebrate the life of Shu-Mei Chang, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Bernstein Funeral Home.
www.dignitymemorial.com
March 16, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Carrie Wu
Good to see an #herbarium study from @newphyt.bsky.social featured on NPR, with an assessment of what we stand to lose when herbaria are closed.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

www.kcur.org/news/2025-02...

Includes quotes from @barbarathiers.bsky.social, Jordan Teischer, Lynn Clark.
Plant libraries hold essential clues about climate change, but they're vulnerable to funding cuts
Scientists say amid climate change and biodiversity loss, the world’s herbaria could hold the keys to overcoming the crises in their folders of dried plant specimens. But their future is in question a...
www.kcur.org
February 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Quote post with a picture you took in a National Park:
Olympic National Park last summer
February 25, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Today’s self care / procrastibaking: Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns — full of freshly cracked cardamom)….

…And still listening to REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it” 🫤
February 20, 2025 at 3:26 AM