Andrew Alverson

Our phylogenetic classification of >400 diatom genera is now published in Journal of Phycology. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hey editors of scientific journals, I know you are struggling to find reviewers now, so please can you just make a decision after review without sending it back to the reviewers for another round of review after revisions? Especially when the changes are minor and the authors made them all.

🌿 Save the Date! 🌊 We're excited to announce that PSA's 2027 Annual Meeting will take place July 17–22, 2027, at John Carroll University! More details will be announced soon. 📅 We can't wait to see you all in Cleveland! #PSA2027 #Phycology #Algae #Seaweed

Exciting news!! I'm chairing the search in my department @lsubiosci.bsky.social for an **Endowed Chair in Lichenology**! The candidate should be tenured (or equivalent), and have a documented track record in excellent in collections-based lichen research. lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...

Need to feel good about tiny things today, see The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

Spread the word! I’m looking to recruit a PhD student to grow the Paulinella project. Some details can be found here: www.vanettenlab.org/join

It’s almost like the term ‘early diverging lineage’ doesn’t mean anything at all. Having done this exercise myself I’ve realized that tree-thinking is counterintuitive enough that viewpoints like this have to come out routinely to remind people not to fall into higher-lower essentialist thinking

A very nicely stated and demonstrated reiteration of some principles which we should all recognize, but often don't get enough attention, consistency, or precision in discussion. These lineages still deserve study - but we should be temperate about premises and conclusions.

My goodness, what an incredible moment. After Justin Verlander secured the final out of his career, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch came out of the dugout...to summon Verlander's daughter out to embrace her dad on the mound.

Fair enough. But this whole thing was started from this article which came out earlier this year. It may seem obvious, but people are still making this mistake. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I love and appreciate work to resolve hard parts of the tree and then use that to understand evolution. I just hate the "we need to know if (A,B,C) is (A,(B,C)) or (B,(A,C)) so we know if the ancestral trait was that of A or B" narrative that often appears around this.

Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social

I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility

We're hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology in my department at the university of Houston @uh-ecoevo.bsky.social Come be my colleague careers.uh.edu/jobs/assista...

QTL mapping academic.oup.com/genetics/art... Whether you are new to QTL mapping or have years of experience, you’re sure to learn something new and interesting from Shizhong Xu’s Primer. Don’t fret over the equations; there is a terrific narrative here about the past and future of QTL mapping!

Fantastic Asst Professor positions open across multiple UC Berkeley departments @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Plant/Algae/Microb aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05522 Plant/Env aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05382 Gen/Dev/Evo aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05481 Eco aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05489

I'm going to keep reposting this until the closing deadline! We start looking at applications on 10/16!! Also, if water resources isn't your thing, I know there are also positions in biology and geology this year.

Plant Colleagues! Open job for Director of the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center (PRC) at UT Austin. A great job for anyone addressing fundamental questions in evolution of plants and a commitment to herbarium administration and/or collections-based research. apply.interfolio.com/193263

The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas is hiring a TT Assistant Professor Position in Ecology. We have a wonderful group of colleagues. Join us! Apply here: tinyurl.com/yxk5marb

The Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas is hiring a new Assistant Professor in Communication and Democracy as part of a cluster hire in Democracy and the Public Good! uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UAF_Ex...

Fashion’s Most Disgusting Product www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/o...

Not only their best album, but one of the best of all time.

We were so fortunate to be able to recruit Dave Tank as the new director of the MSU Herbarium. Very excited to see what he will do with this amazing resource. natsci.msu.edu/news/2026/20...

Cool video about the nitroplast that’s also a testament to why basic science is important! youtu.be/g9B3gBhcwqM?...

Are you a mathematical modeller in ecology and evolution looking for a job? My department has an opening! Please spread the word! lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

“Cool” new NSF postdoc position available in my lab at UConn, studying our unique Arctic phytoplankton collection and the interactive effects of temperature, light, and photoperiod. 3 years of funding, detailed job ad here: s.uconn.edu/q1o0itl62l.

On behalf of 108 colleagues and friends from 11 countries, thrilled to share the first paper from our 100 #Diatom Genomes Project (100DGP). Just out @plosbiology.org | @norwichmicro.bsky.social | @ueaenv.bsky.social | @jgi.doe.gov doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Paying attention to awkward silences has made me a better teacher and collaborator Real understanding begins when smooth, jargon-filled discussions break down, this researcher writes. #AcademicChatter https://bit.ly/4pU1CMl

🎥 Sakalli et al. present Phylo-Movies, a browser-based tool that decomposes topological differences between consecutive phylogenetic trees into interpretable rooted subtree prune-and-regraft moves and animates these transformations. 🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #societyjournal #compbio

Some info from Chuck Delwiche on Desmodesmus, our national alga.

My new book, Phylogenetic Biology, is now published. Available online for free at dunnlab.org/phylogenetic... . Physical copies can be purchased at shop.lightningsource.com/b/085?params... or your favorite bookstore.

Tenure track professor in Rapid Marine Adaptation at the University of Vienna! Deadline: Sept. 15th jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Tenure-T...

Our paper on how better amino acid substitution matrices trained on cleaned alignments improve gene tree inference, and on best practice for cleaning MSAs more broadly, is now out academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-.... New options in both IQTree and Muscle5. @phylowheeler.bsky.social

In a recent PNAS Profile, we explore how paleolimnologist John P. Smol transformed our understanding of environmental change by using lake sediment records to reconstruct the past, from acid rain to Arctic climate warming. Read more: https://ow.ly/zMOB50Zl6pM

From lenticular printing to mounted displays, #Evol2026 is pushing the boundaries of what it means to present a poster

Blue lobsters are very rare: 1 in 2 million by some estimates. But SPLIT COLOR LOBSTERS are 1 in *50* million. This lobster is a chimera of two fertilized eggs that fused together, with two distinct genomes: male on one side, female on the other. (📷: Woods Hole Science Aquarium/NOAA Fisheries)

I'm looking for a postdoc to work on diatom phylogenomics. Reach out by email with questions. Please share and repost! uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/UASYS/job/Fa...

This interview on @nprfreshair.bsky.social is one of the best I've heard, possibly ever. Beautifully formulated questions, answers that cut you in half. What a great conversation. Can't wait to read this book.

I'm looking for a postdoc to work on diatom phylogenomics. Reach out by email with questions. Please share and repost! uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/UASYS/job/Fa...

Stephen Colbert is a national treasure: The day after his show was canned after 11 years by CBS to appease a tyrant, he shows up on the Monroe, MI public access channel where he did his first Late Show broadcast in 2015.

Five days left to apply! 🌊 Exciting #PhDPosition in #PlanktonEcology at the University of Koblenz, Germany! Work on #marine #protists with a mix of 🔬 wet lab and 💻 bioinformatics in a 3-year, 60% position. 📅 Apply by 20 May 2026 Please repost/share 🙌 Link: tinyurl.com/yu27knau #ProtistsOnSky

Gas Station Price Sign Using Scientific Notation

My lab is currently looking for a postdoc interested in phylogenomics to work with our group on PhyloFisher. Please reach out if you or anyone you know is interested. evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD

Our review on the evolutionary arms race between copepods and diatoms is now published in @aslo.org #ASLO_LO 🌊 We discuss the most common defense mechanisms found in diatoms, and how copepods have evolved to overcome them. Check it out #openaccess aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Somehow this paper has been largely ignored, but the basic idea has been presented by others as novel, or the idea gets misattributed to someone else. If you're interested in #diatom sex and its evolutionary importance, read and cite this paper. www.jstor.org/stable/2460887