Maybe you might need this adorable picture of my doggo Max taken by his groomers today. It’s 40 degrees 🔥 outside but they took a photo with a scarf on him and fake snow 🤣🤷‍♀️🐶❤️

What a week for backfiring celebrations of women in science: I’ve been finding that people have been using Jocelyn Bell’s photo in celebrations of Margaret Rossiter’s life (OMG get the right woman!) and now this… AI women in STEM slop.

To add context, part of why there were so many more applicants is because they moved DECRA back six months, effectively skipping funding the scheme for a year. They had to extend eligibility as a result, so this was essentially two years in one. But with no adjustment to number of grants awarded.

If anyone wondering about academic funding in Aus, this is the stark reality at present. I have written countless letters to politicians like @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social, @davidpocock.bsky.social who like to say they are leading this conversation in Aus but it is really like shouting into the void.

The ARC will soon be overhauling its entire grants system. They've never undertaken such a huge set of changes. Doing it while sacking existing staff and restructuring … I just … 🤯😡

Wow. Just wow. A decision in direct conflict with all the ideals of the Reith Lectures.

DECRA success rate is the lowest in 14 years, since 2012 (1st year the scheme ran). What a pathetic system we have for supporting new ideas, new people… DE26: 13.1% 25: 17.9 24: 19.6 23: 15.0 22: 19.7 21: 17.1 20: 16.0 19: 17.2 18: 16.3 17: 16.7 16: 16.4 15: 14.3 14: 13.6 13: 15.6 12: 12.8

In case you’re interested, some stats here. australiainstitute.org.au/post/in-2023...

This is a shocking statistic.

When you think of particle accelerators, you probably think of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. But did you know our School of Physics has had its fair share of particle accelerators over the years? Dr Adam Steinberg shares some remarkable #UniMelb particle accelerators → unimelb.me/47s1psa

One of the things that kills me about all this is that it’s just, like, maybe ten guys.

We must fund medical research properly. With the Trump administration slashing healthcare spending in the United States, Australia has a unique opportunity to become a global leader in medical innovation and biotech. With the stroke of a pen, the government could make it happen today.

Today, leading medical researchers from across the nation are stepping into Parliament, joining my call for the government to release the funds being withheld from the Medical Research Future Fund. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Australia’s MRFF is sitting on billions of taxpayers’ dollars which was meant to be invested in world-leading, lifesaving health innovations.

astronomers have ever been the same, but “Marduk bless the king!” is a lot more fun than the ARC National Interest Test

Max the physics doggo crashed out hard after so many cuddles and pats and sniffs at @unimelb.bsky.social today.

Very pleased to find that my proposed DP project on the beam dynamics of next generation magnets in accelerators (with @tessacharles.bsky.social and Prof Rob Appleby) has been successfully funded — this is first ever ARC DP in accelerator physics (that I’m aware of…). 🤓🙌

ARC says Discovery Projects outcomes will be tomorrow (Tuesday). Linkage Projects (2025, round 1) on Wed. Over past ~year, it's often been at about 11am (Canberra). My bot will pick up the change to RMS & post immediately. ARC should email outcomes to lead CIs, but might take an 1hr or so for DPs

The discovery that sparked a revolution in physics: #OnThisDay in 1897, JJ Thomson announced the existence of the corpuscle, later known as the electron — right here at the Ri! ⚛️ Watch the full talk with @suziesheehy.bsky.social: youtu.be/aXg3edeUrtc

It’s been a big week and now en route home from Canada where I was the Lansdowne Visiting Fellow at @uvic.bsky.social and TRIUMF. So many great chats, now looking forward to building some new collaborative projects with Magdalena Bazalova-Carter’s group.

ARC has provided a bit of info about Discovery Projects EOI shortlisting process here ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/sites/defaul... 🔹27.7% success rate – 1127 shortlisted of 4063 EOIs 🔹43 EOIs with "disparate scores" were rescued 🔹All EOIs reviewed by 3 College of Experts assessors Breakdown across panels👇

Wanna hear how this brilliant accelerator physicist thinks? A fabulous interview ... Follow @suziesheehy.bsky.social astrophiz.com/2022/04/15/a...

Boek tip . @suziesheehy.bsky.social

I am dreading having to drop things to hurriedly prep a new EOI if my outcome is unsuccessful this year, but I simply refuse to waste my own time in this way by prepping another EOI — don’t forget we’ve all written two rounds of applications for our projects to get to this point.

Looking forward to my first AIP congress since I was an undergrad!

Celebrating my first ever post here with this pic of (most of) my research group at @unimelb in the XLAB — with our illustrious visitor and old friend Prof Emmanuel Tsesmelis (@cern & @universityofoxford.bsky.social) after delivering a colloquium today on the FCC (Future Circular Collider).