Kate Dowdell, PhD, PE's Avatar

Kate Dowdell, PhD, PE

@katedowdell

Assistant Professor, drinking water quality and pathogens, environmental engineer, water microbio, she/her, views are my own

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01.09.2023
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Latest posts by Kate Dowdell, PhD, PE @katedowdell

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“If you have flu-like symptoms… this is the time to seek medical attention.”

At a news conference, @cmyusefsalaam.bsky.social spoke about the Legionnaires’ disease cluster in Central Harlem.

08.08.2025 21:01 👍 66 🔁 63 💬 3 📌 8
Change in NSF GRFP awards from 2024-2025. Bar height shows absolute change, label shows percent change.

Change in NSF GRFP awards from 2024-2025. Bar height shows absolute change, label shows percent change.

Although 500 new NSF GRFPs were added in June, the total number of fellowships in 2025 remains ~500 fewer than in 2024. Some fields—like CS and Physics—still saw net increases in total awards.

But others, including Life Sciences & Psychology, have taken hits of 50% or more compared to last year.

26.06.2025 16:32 👍 18 🔁 18 💬 2 📌 0
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Moving Beyond the Silos of Opportunistic Pathogen and Disinfection Byproduct Research to Improve Drinking Water System Management Drinking water opportunistic pathogens (OPs) and disinfection byproducts (DBPs) both pose risks to public health, and their variable occurrence from source to tap complicates efforts to control them s...

Check out our new open access review paper in ES&T on ways to unify drinking water opportunistic pathogen and disinfection byproduct research. Excited for this to be my first paper as a corresponding. Shout out to our amazing co-authors! @lutraskin.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

02.05.2025 14:21 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Microbial Omics A suite of bioinformatics tools for microbial genome and metagenome analysis.

I'm delighted to share a useful FREE web-based app portal of powerful bioinformatics tools for microbial genomes and shotgun microbiome sequences!

It's called Micromics and is built by Middle Author Bioinformatics, led by co-founder @ironark.bsky.social
omix.midauthorbio.com

08.04.2025 12:11 👍 178 🔁 73 💬 7 📌 4
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Global Metagenomics Reveals Hidden Protist Diversity Protists, defined as unicellular eukaryotes distinct from animals, plants, and fungi, are a polyphyletic group that predominates the eukaryotic tree of life, exhibiting significant phylogenetic divers...

On hidden protist diversity (unfortunately the data is not available yet) #protistsonsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

28.03.2025 07:43 👍 27 🔁 15 💬 4 📌 2

Sending much love and solidarity to all the public health workers who have been inexplicably fired from government agencies today. The world is far less safe as a result.

14.02.2025 22:50 👍 457 🔁 101 💬 6 📌 1
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National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house."

Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.

www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...

30.01.2025 23:07 👍 8887 🔁 3324 💬 272 📌 201

I can confirm that PRFB fellows aren’t being paid and are locked out of requesting funds. Hoping this gets resolved quickly for all of those struggling as a result.

30.01.2025 23:07 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled

29.01.2025 20:59 👍 219 🔁 143 💬 9 📌 8
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New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States According to new data analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures, rising seas and changing rainfall will profoundly reshape the way people have lived in North…

In 2020, we mapped out the danger zones that will close in on Americans over the next 30 years — combining climate data with wildfire projections by US Forest Service researchers.

See what changes are in store for your county.

By @shaw.al , @abrahm.bsky.social & Jeremy W. Goldsmith

12.01.2025 04:00 👍 6346 🔁 2952 💬 289 📌 425
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E.P.A. Bans Perc and T.C.E., Two Chemicals Used In Dry Cleaning The two solvents, known as Perc and TCE, cause kidney cancer and other ailments, and have been the subject of years of controversy.

Breaking News: The EPA banned two solvents found in everyday products and used in dry cleaning that can cause cancer and other serious diseases.

09.12.2024 12:10 👍 561 🔁 88 💬 30 📌 12

I hope I'm wrong, but in a meeting earlier today I remarked to Seema Lakdawala, who's quoted in the article, and Anice Lowen that H5N1 feels like a slow-moving train wreck.

06.12.2024 20:46 👍 148 🔁 33 💬 8 📌 4
IWA MEWE-11 CONFERENCE – Managing Microbiomes: From Ecology to Engineering

The deadline for abstract submissions to #mewe11
is two weeks from now (Dec 15). Click on "Call for papers".

Early registration is also live. Click on "Registration". Register early and save $$.

Visa letter needed? Complete registration & submit your abstract first.

mewe11.ce.gatech.edu

03.12.2024 02:13 👍 4 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0

Let me know if you would like to be added to the Environmental Engineers (Water) starter pack!

go.bsky.app/RxwzD7c

21.11.2024 21:52 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 4 📌 0
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Engineers Are Unsung Heroes Of Global Health Engineers add tremendous value in all areas of global health and medical care. They are unsung heroes of global health

Engineers add tremendous value in all areas of global health and medical care. They are unsung heroes of global health

www.forbes.com/sites/madhuk...

19.11.2024 15:48 👍 95 🔁 26 💬 5 📌 4

Check out our new pre-print on NTM in drinking water systems! @lutraskin.bsky.social

20.04.2024 20:05 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Interested in drinking water flow cytometry? Check out our new studying evaluating near real-time FCM for disinfection system monitoring! @lutraskin.bsky.social 🧪 #MicroSky

30.12.2023 16:46 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion | Reporting on Long Covid Taught Me to Be a Better Journalist Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force that it is often caricatured to be.

I wrote an op-ed for the NYT about what reporting on long COVID has meant to me—how I approached it, the impact it had, and how it taught me to be a better journalist.

This piece is sort of a manifesto for a journalism grounded in compassion, rigor, and care.

www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/o...

11.12.2023 15:06 👍 1400 🔁 550 💬 70 📌 85
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Home | Katrina B Velle, PhD I'm Katrina Velle, a cell biologist interested in actin-driven phenotypes and microbial pathogenesis. As a postdoc, I am investigating the contributions of the actin cytoskeleton to phenotypes in Naeg...

I am actively recruiting students for my lab at UMass Dartmouth!
Are you interested in a project on actin, amoebae, cell migration, and/or pathogenesis? Send me an email & apply to the Integrative Biology PhD program by Jan 15!
Please RT
More info: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science

15.11.2023 11:59 👍 7 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 1

Looking to recruit 3 grad researchers. (1) Drinking water micro-ecology, (2) Nitrogen micro (specifically comammox), and (3) Algal micro + imaging. as Spring 2024 & late as Fall 2024. if you know someone creative + motivated + interested in these topics - would appreciate u sharing this with them.

14.11.2023 22:44 👍 11 🔁 26 💬 1 📌 0

So beautiful!!!

28.10.2023 23:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Dear researchers interested in the fascinating world of protists (microbial eukaryotes). I have created a feed for us to interact here. Please tag posts with #ProtistsOnSky and follow the feed. No sign-up needed!

28.10.2023 09:41 👍 31 🔁 18 💬 5 📌 1

Hey Y'all!

The Black Microbiologists Association is now on Blue Sky and can be found @blackinmicro.bsky.social still working on making the account look like we actually use it 😅. Please follow for up to date Black In Micro Week News !

28.08.2023 01:23 👍 77 🔁 45 💬 0 📌 0
A QIACube Connect automated DNA/RNA extraction system

A QIACube Connect automated DNA/RNA extraction system

My dreams have come true 🧬 🧫

09.10.2023 23:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
RESEARCH FELLOW | U-M Careers

We are recruiting two postdocs at the University of Michigan with expertise in anaerobic biotechnology research, sociotechnical education, and community-led circular economy social structures and infrastructure facilities. Job posting at

06.10.2023 02:55 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Good morning! Right now is a great time to order your four free COVID tests from the US government: www.covid.gov/tests

25.09.2023 10:52 👍 9 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Hi Bluesky! I’m a postdoc and NSF PRFB fellow at UT studying drinking water microbial communities and opportunistic pathogens. And I’ll be on the job market this year! Looking forward to connecting 🧫🧬

19.09.2023 01:27 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0