Matthew Buckley
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physicsmatt.bsky.social
Matthew Buckley
@physicsmatt.bsky.social
2.7K followers 390 following 800 posts
Theoretical physicist, Rutgers professor.
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physicsmatt.bsky.social
I hope a lot of Republican officials are waking up this morning thinking this.
November 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
New vibes, who this?
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
For the next 7 hours, we will not be accepting Election Takes.
Two panels, first showing a cartoon dog holding a frisbee saying "No Take!!" and the second the dog, looking angry, says "Only Vote"
November 4, 2025 at 5:49 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Otto and Wanda from A Fish Called Wanda. Otto says “apes don’t read philosophy” and Wanda retorts “yes they do Otto, they just don’t understand it.”
October 29, 2025 at 10:28 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Garth Marenghi saying “I know writers who use subtext and they’re all cowards.”
October 20, 2025 at 10:11 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
The protest today was so dangerous. I took my dog and just look at her: dangerously overloaded from too many scritches.
An anti-royalty gold retriever lies exhausted on the floor, after having entirely too much fun at the No Kings protest.
October 18, 2025 at 10:21 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Hela (labeled "Trump's pardons and tanks") saying "You can't defeat me" to Thor (labeled "Sense of Duty") who says "I know, but he can" pointing to a giant fire monster (labeled "We, the people of the United States -- You and Me -- and our magnificent Constitution").
September 30, 2025 at 6:29 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
September 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
...wait, sub-cosmological scales you say?
September 26, 2025 at 1:47 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Look, let me just cut to chase here.
September 22, 2025 at 9:46 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
My energy going in to the semester.
Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Zhukov in Death of Stalin, saying “I mean, I’m smiling, but I am very fucking furious”
September 3, 2025 at 9:14 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Ron
Ron Burgundy, disheveled, drinking a beer, saying "Boy that escalated quickly."
August 29, 2025 at 3:37 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Small domino/big domino meme. Small domino says "Bilbo pities Gollum." Big domino says "Defeat of Sauron." In the middle, middle domino says "Some babies get eaten."
August 8, 2025 at 12:59 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Dr. Doofenshmirtz saying "It's weird that it happened twice, right?"
August 5, 2025 at 12:52 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters talking, with Egon saying "that would have worked if you didn't stop me."
August 4, 2025 at 10:19 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Now look, every other person with niche subject matter expertise eventually succumbs to Poaster's Madness, but I'm sure I'll be fine.
K-2SO from "Star Wars: Rogue One" saying "Not me, I can survive in space" with "in space" crossed out and replaced with "on the internet"
May 31, 2025 at 4:57 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Marge Simpson captioned as “theoretical physicists” holding a potato labeled “scalar fields” saying “I just think they’re neat.”
May 30, 2025 at 11:14 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Butterfly meme. Butterfly labeled “literally anything,” man labeled “theoretical physicists” saying “is this an excuse for another scalar field?”
May 30, 2025 at 10:36 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Unless of course, dark matter just got magically poofed into existence in the form of macroscopic clumps very early on.
Hermes and the Professor from Futurama looking at Bender smoking a cigar next to a burned-down house, underwater. Hermes is saying "That just raises further questions"
May 9, 2025 at 3:33 PM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Undergrad specific impacts: Research Experience for Undergrads.

This is how we get people into research. There are fewer opportunities now.RE
REUs Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) grants. NSF program to support undergrads obtaining summer research experience. Pays for personnel (faculty & staff) to manage program, and the costs to pay students. In the grand scheme of things, these aren’t enormous costs (see previous) Standard 3-year cycle with the expectation that the university will reapply and likely be given the new grant (modulo changes in federal budget) My understanding: Rutgers and other universities who were applying for new grants had the grant approval pulled after panel-review stage and at an approval step that in previous years was pro forma As a result, many institutions (I don’t know how many, I’ve heard at least 20%) had to cancel their REU programs.
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
This slide is already out of date.
What Has Happened So Far? Late January: NIH cancels panels. This threatens all NIH grants for next year, as NIH is on 1-year review Early February: Trump Administration announces F&A rates for all grants will be immediately reduced to 15%. This will hit the Rutgers budget for ~$100M Last I heard this was enjoined by a court. February/March: Many NSF panels for next year have been cancelled. NSF and NIH grants with keywords (climate, mRNA, diversity, bi, trans,…) in title have been cancelled. NIH grant channels for underrepresented groups cancelled (removing those applicants from the pool) Late March/early April: Some NASA grants have been revoked March: Significant number of staff (program officers, etc) have been fired (Reduction In Force -> “RIFed”) in NASA, NIH, NSF,… Several universities have had broad swaths of grants pulled (UMaine, $100M in DOAg, JHU $800M in USAID, Columbia $400M in NIH, Brown $500M, Northwestern, Cornell…) Some of these actions have been ordered reversed/held by courts. Unclear if those actions will be upheld. Would only apply to existing grants. Broad sense that future grants will not be forthcoming.
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Theory grants are on the smaller end, and lots of it is taken up by fringe (health care and benefits) and overhead (goes to university operations).

Is this the only way we could build a system to do science? No, but if you take this away without a new system in place, that's a problem.
What Does a Grant Pay For Specializing to High Energy Theory grants (NSF and DOE) There are small, medium, and large grants. The program officer will fit your grant application into one of these boxes. Our grant combined grant (6+ PIs) pays for PI summer salary, 1-2 grad students and part of a postdoc. Travel + personal computing gets crammed in around the edges. Typical rule-of-thumb is 3 theory PIs gets 1 postdoc on a grant Grants get charged fringe: covering health insurance and benefits. For every $1 spent on salary, we pay $0.38 for federal fringe. For state grants, we pay $0.80 for every $1 of salary. Grants get charged overhead (“F&A”): covers the cost to the university for “incidentals” that aren’t directly charged to the grant. “Incidentals” include: The electricity. The building. The staff. Every $1 of direct spending on a grant has an overhead of ~$0.57 Universities rely on F&A as part of their operating budget. ~$200M for Rutgers
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Being a PI is a continual cycle of applying for grants, explaining what you did for the grant, and trying to get a new grant. Is this the most efficient system? Maybe not, but it is the system we work in.
Life Cycle of a Grant Most physics grants are on three-year cycles: Year -1: Apply for grant (10s to 100 pages, lots of documentation working with university staff) Start hiring process in the expectation you’ll get a grant Year 1: get grant. yay! Start doing science. End of Year 1+2: submit paperwork demonstrating you are doing the work and being a good steward of money. NIH grants must be administratively approved yearly Year 3: submit final grant report, submit your new grant Year 4: “No cost extensions”
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Every person I've ever worked with treats the money we are entrusted with incredibly seriously. The grant process is tedious, lengthly, and relies on massive amounts of volunteered time as well as expert grant officers in the funding agencies.
What is a Grant? Public grants are obtained through a competitive process: A public “call” outlining the scope of the grants, application process “Principal Investigators” (PIs) submit applications describing the science that will be done, who it will be done by, and the necessary costs for the science (personnel, equipment, etc). A panel of experts is assembled by the grant agency to review all the applications. Non-trivial time investment (multiple day meetings and lots of reading beforehand). An expectation that you will agree to be on a panel if you are a grant-holder (“being a good citizen”) Everyone I’ve ever sat on a panel with takes this very seriously. Final decision made by Program Officers in funding agency, taking in to account financial realities.
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
physicsmatt.bsky.social
Note Bene: I know how DOE and NSF grants for theoretical physics work, because that's my system. I know the ins and outs of other systems far less well.
What is a Grant Note: I know my grant structure the best. Extrapolating and have spoken to colleagues in other areas to try to understand the landscape National funding agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), National Institutes of Heath (NIH), NASA. Also USAID, NOAA, Department of Agriculture… Rutgers has ~$500M/yr in federal grant money State grants and private grants are also significant: ~$400M/yr (Total Rutgers budget is $5.6B/yr)
April 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM