seemay chou
@seemaychou
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scientist. ceo @arcadiascience. co-founder @asterainstitute. chair @navigationfund. texan in CA.
Berkeley, CA
Joined September 2009
We did something radical that shouldn’t feel radical: we stopped funding science built for journals so that we can reimagine scientific publishing. First at @ArcadiaScience. Now at @AsteraInstitute. More below.
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Feeling extremely lucky to be able to work with Doris on this. To me, consciousness is the central mystery of the universe and I think we have a good shot of finally starting to understand it!
I am deeply excited to share that I will be joining @AsteraInstitute to start a new effort to understand how the brain generates consciousness and intelligence.
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🥚 Effortless Eggshell Opening! Crack eggs like a pro with the Egg Shell Opener! Perfect for soft or hard-boiled eggs, this handy tool makes breakfast easier than ever.
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I am deeply excited to share that I will be joining @AsteraInstitute to start a new effort to understand how the brain generates consciousness and intelligence.
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Excited to finally share about Astera Neuro, our new neuroscience research program @AsteraInstitute with the amazing @doristsao taking the leap to lead it. We’re seeking to understand how the brain constructs conscious experience and what those principles could teach us about
We’re launching Astera Neuro, a new neuroscience research effort led by @doristsao as Chief Scientist. Our aim is to unravel a profound scientific mystery: how the brain transforms sensory inputs into conscious experience. Advancing this work could illuminate the computational
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i know this isn't true for many, but having a kid didn't really alter who i am or how i feel, besides being exhausted. tbh it's a relief. if someone told me this was possible, i may have had a kid sooner bc i was pretty worried about losing or changing identity
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POSLUMA’s unique benefits can help guide clinical decision-making. Are you ready to see what sets it apart? Learn more about the benefits. See prescribing information at https://t.co/xrxCXWTMwM.
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Hiring a data steward for our efforts @AsteraInstitute
Open science is hard. It's a huge lift to make sure research is open and maximally useful for the rest of the scientific ecosystem to build upon. At @AsteraInstitute we're committed to the maximum downstream impact and public benefit of our outputs. To that end, we're hiring a
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I’ve never done a salon quite like this before. Hope you’ll join us to make it a lively discussion!
Science needs new organizations. Join @seemaychou (co-founder of Arcadia Science, Astera Institute) & host @Sam__Enright to investigate how philanthropy & entrepreneurship are rebuilding the infrastructure of discovery outside academia.
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Check out our latest work at @ArcadiaScience on decomposing a neural network trained on Genotype-Phenotype data into interpretable and familiar quantitative genetics parameters.
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How to transform UMAP from a black box into a glass box: by using a special type of deep network, we can now compute exact linear equivalents that reveal which features drive each point's position in the embedding. @ArcadiaScience [1/8]
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🧵Really excited to share a set of our recent pubs @ArcadiaScience where we make black box BioML models transparent. [1/7] https://t.co/IIo2ZePAvd
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Excited to see this effort launch. Would love to see more philanthropists experiment w creative (and easy!) ways to unleash capital for impact. Always happy to chat if anyone’s ever interested in trying just hmu
At @RenPhil21, we want to give donors more ways to bet on science and tech. Thanks to @elidourado and the @AsteraInstitute team, we will be standing up a new offering that will leverage DAFs to bring down the cost of capital of energy and infrastructure projects. More here:
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There are $250B sitting in DAFs. What if donor-advisors could use funds for private loan guarantees for FOAK projects or facilities? Would it help the country reindustrialize? 🤔 At Astera, we're going to try it.
At @RenPhil21, we want to give donors more ways to bet on science and tech. Thanks to @elidourado and the @AsteraInstitute team, we will be standing up a new offering that will leverage DAFs to bring down the cost of capital of energy and infrastructure projects. More here:
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This erroneous criticism is so pervasive across every system right now, including science. it’s making it hard to move any conversation forward. Great read from @pahlkadot
A frequent but erroneous criticism of @pahlkadot et al’s work at Recoding America Fund is that state capacity shouldn’t be the focus when the biggest concern is preventing the state from wielding power against the vulnerable. Her epic piece today makes clear why that is wrong /🧵
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Puzzle time just got more aesthetic. The Morandi-colored cat design transforms quiet moments into peaceful, artistic therapy.
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🚨 Hiring scientists to help give away money 🚨 At @open_phil, we have given away $600M in biomedical research since 2016. Now, we're expanding the team to do more. Hiring: * Up to 3 Senior Program Associates * Program Officer in strep A Remote OK, salaries in links! (thread)
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Quarterly update from our @diffUSEproject scientists a few months in, if you want to follow their evolving thought process:
diffuse.science
A report on our October 2025 all-hands meeting
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Ugh ok now with today’s announcement I feel the need to say that I wish people would stop with “the modern bell labs” bc it’s the ultimate Rorschach without any real hypothesis. I want to take institutional experiments seriously, help me help youuuu
We’ve been heads down @ArcadiaScience for a bit but the @arenabioworks news this week caused me to dump thoughts. hard things are hard; don’t be such a fucking hater. Reflections on parallels w our own institutional experiment here
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Would actually be curious to get @BobbyHollings take given your championing of open science in the past!
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Germane thoughts from @seemaychou on how seeking 'different outcomes' means things might not go well. When we mentor people in the lab, we don't default to "I told you so" if experiments fail. It's obvious that this would stifle science. But when people fund new institutions,
We’ve been heads down @ArcadiaScience for a bit but the @arenabioworks news this week caused me to dump thoughts. hard things are hard; don’t be such a fucking hater. Reflections on parallels w our own institutional experiment here
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If no one ever did anything that other people thought was impossible or dumb, we wouldn’t have most of the innovation we have today. Scientists of all people should feel that in their bones. Experiments should be about lessons, not wins anyway
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We’ve been heads down @ArcadiaScience for a bit but the @arenabioworks news this week caused me to dump thoughts. hard things are hard; don’t be such a fucking hater. Reflections on parallels w our own institutional experiment here
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