I grew up in TX and I am very surprised at the backbone on display, but it's nice to see

Azeem will be studying X-ray emission from dwarf galaxies to understand the energetics of their black holes

Tagging @breinz.bsky.social !

As someone who lived in TX during Bush, Perry and Abbott governorships...I have the same question

It's now working!

Postdoc & grad student parents in the US are in a tough situation. They either quit academia or struggle to support their family. The push to be over-productive can make them fall even further behind. I'm very stressed, exhausted and sad about this situation and I have no idea how to solve it. 5/5

How can I focus on work when I'm worried about affording diapers/food or figuring out which medical services that I need can be neglected to ensure the health and well-being of my child? How do on-campus daycares cost $20k/yr for tuition alone? How is this acceptable? 4/5

That's ~25% of a typical grad student's *annual* salary, and 15% of my postdoc fellowship salary. Rent has skyrocketed averaging about $1.5k/mo, or $18k/yr. That means that daycare and rent is 43% of my salary (before taxes) and ~70% of a grad's salary. Even with a 2nd income, that's wild. 3/5

That daycare happened to be significantly less expensive than other places, but still high quality and licensed. Despite being half the price of most other daycare centers (including those on campus) we paid almost $10k in tuition alone. That does not include clothes, diapers, formula, food, etc 2/5

Wow...also what how? There's no way I could have done that as an undergrad. Or even now. That must be 3 papers in what like 1-2 years? While taking classes full time? That sounds exhausting

I got rejected from a job the day I started my first postdoc. But I didn't hear from many other and just found out via the rumor mill

Definitely stay home. I actually didn't go into the office until my baby was old enough for the COVID vaccine but not all of us are that lucky. Protect those who can't protect themselves 🙂

I had to schedule mine over a month in advance. Meanwhile I was shopping at Sam's one day and they were begging shoppers to get their flu shot. I got my shot and a discount on my groceries. It's so ridiculous how hard it is to get the covid vaccine.