I'm not really one for specific New Year's resolutions but 2026 is going to be very busy for me, so I think I'm allowed to say no to things a bit more often!

New paper! We spoke to people living with dementia, families & optometrists to learn how we can make eye tests better for everyone who has dementia. 👀🔗: journals.sagepub.com/share/YXUTRH... ⬇️ Infographic of findings & what we've done to help break down barriers to getting an eye test close to home 🇦🇺

Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund: Hi #academicsky we're open for applications from today, the week before Christmas! Submission deadline 28th Jan! Fancy spending your Xmas and New Year grant writing? Me:

Are you a researcher, policy maker or institutional leader with an interest in how we can determine the impact of evidence reviews? (Full invitation in image and alt text) Details and survey here: monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #academicsky

Here's a peek at our new Social Media Research Toolkit, a curated collection of more than 50 social media research tools. This toolkit is unique in that it only features tried and tested tools that have been used in peer-reviewed academic studies. (ETA Jan 5, 2026) #academicsky #comsky

Me talking about someone's AI peer review of an AI written article: So I said reject and gave a list of reasons why it wasn't suitable, and the first review came through that was a glowing, effusive accept! @drbaonguyen.bsky.social: So does that make you Reviewer 2? 😆 Me: ......Dammit. #AcademicSky

Why must you attack me so

By what right do my friends make such jokes about my pain, and have them be funny? #AcademicSky

Omg I updated my scimex profile last night (very overdue to do list item) and got an email from one of the scimex staff saying their MIL has dementia and has just entered residential aged care, so she appreciates the work I'm doing for my fellowship 🥹 Msgs like that keep me going! 💪 #AcademicSky

Chrimbo tree!

I already got Whammed in Alice Springs airport in mid November so surely this will confer upon me some level of whammunity for this month??

Oh man, I had a really nice chat with someone at an event and cos I'm still pretty new to Monash (and clueless) I had no idea I was actually talking to a very storied global health prof who was previous VIC deputy CHO! I was just blethering 🙈 I'm just gonna crawl back under my rock & die now kthxbai

Maybe it'll lure Aussie researchers who are fed up with abysmal Gov't funding rates too!

And then you have the British Congress of Optometry and Vision Sciences, where we go down the pub in the lunch break and dinner is at the local curry house 🤣

I enjoy this meme. The Grade 6 class I was talking to a few years ago about research integrity did not. Look out for it in one of my #resdev sessions in the future. #resdevmemes #academicsky

Just having a quiet moment with a cuppa before I present my early case study findings to our expert reference group for the dementia eyecare pathway. I'm interviewing for $75k of funding later, so I've really got the jitters 😅 it's 15 mins of my whole life, 15 mins of my whole life... #AcademicSky

10 strategies: 1, inclusion, 2, focus on what works, 3. Embrace complexity, 4, connect hearts. 5 connect heads, 6 adopt to need,7 build big tent, 8, make it easy, 9 realtime testing, 10 keep pace

"It shouldn't have to be this hard." This was a convo I had with someone on a random LinkedIn post on a totally different topic. I spend more time on these social media platforms than I should but to me it's worth it to hear stories like this. Things could be so much better 😔

Oh man this is one of those stop the world I want to get off kind of weeks 😵‍💫

As an #Australian #QualititativeResearch er, gotta love when an interviewee slips a bit of regional dialect into an interview. How do co-designers know we’re fair dinkum in wanting to partner with them in #codesign? PS This quote’s definitely going in a paper. #linguisticsky #academicsky

We got shortlisted so um yay? Time to be consumed by an elevator pitch practice loop for a week ig... 🙈

Another lol MDPI journals moment: Got emailed directly by a special issue editor for Journal of Clinical Medicine - only paper in the issue is his team's and there are 3 other "special issues" with similar titles, each with a few articles. This is why nobody takes them seriously... #AcademicSky

What an amazing week at #AAGConf25! It was such a privilege to convene a whole symposium devoted to vision and hearing care for older adults, bringing together some amazing researchers across Australia. We enjoyed sharing our work! #academicsky #gerisky #gerontology #dementia #research

Yesterday, our MARCS team proudly delivered a meaningful and insightful symposium on Day 1 of #AAGCONF25, titled: “Inclusion at the centre: Promoting socially connected communities for meaningful ageing" - presenting a diverse range of work dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of older adults.

Some prof on LinkedIn was posting saying not to celebrate getting research funding on there cos it upsets ppl who miss out. But LinkedIn is by nature performative, it's a career networking platform, that's what it's designed for? I used to see these kinds of statements on Twitter too. #AcademicSky

A project that started with a DiGRA23 workshop is finally, nearly out in the world! Coming May 2026 from Bloomsbury’s Writing History series, Writing Games Histories is a collection of essays on historical game studies methods&approaches. Find the ToC here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...

I have chilblains. In November. MELBOURNE PLS.

Last light of the day and the last #autumn leaves on the acers at #Bodnant Gardens Tal-y-Cafn @nationaltrust.org.uk 🍂🍁🍂

I think I've done all my overdue peer reviews? Gosh, October was such a month, I still feel like I'm recovering...

When I was at uni, I was able to apply to a hardship fund. This was because being on clinical placement every uni holiday made it impossible for me to do casual work. That fund made a really big difference to me, my independence. One day, when I'm in a position to, I'd like to pay it forward...

I’ve spent many years explaining/defending biorxiv’s “no reviews” policy. The logic was always that opening Word and opining is a far lower barrier than doing actual research, so noise’d be >> signal and we didn’t want to make subjective quality judgements. LLMs mean it makes even more sense 1/2

I’m over here sympathizing in English lecturer. Would you like one of our Screaming Cookies? They don’t actually scream themselves, unfortunately. They’re just very large to muffle the weeping and absorb some of the stomach acid before it makes a new ulcer. #thewordofthedayisduodenal

The Aus dementia rehab roadmap has weighed in at 10k - still two small sections to finish cos I got sick this week, but hoo boy no wonder it took me longer than planned to finish the draft 😅 There's some good stuff in there though, so grateful to everyone who took part #academicsky #dementiaresearch

Wehweh feel like I've spent this whole week grant writing instead of doing other stuff I'm actually excited about moan whinge My sole Friday achievement has been going for a walk and scoring biscoff cheesecake for 4 bucks from Woolies chuckouts. At least that's something! #academicsky

My colleague: So how's your grant writing going? Me:

Trying to explain how the academic/faculty job market works to someone outside of the field makes you sound like a crazy person. #academicsky

Looking forward to this morning's dementia symposium at the Royal Melbourne Hospital! There's some great panellists speaking today about how they are improving the hospital experience at RMH for people living with dementia, and what still needs to happen 😁 #academicsky

I have a huge backlog of field notes to type up 😴 Just feel like I have so much academic admin rn #academicsky

Multiple times recently I've felt a bit uncomfortable in the presence of brash people who clearly move in very different worlds to me, where movement of large amounts of money happens over dinner with important people. The disconnect is very apparent when you're not in the room where it happens.

I do this a lot!

I am a supposedly tech-savvy academic but I needed a room full of retirement village residents to tell me how to operate their TV I was presenting on 😂 I accidentally changed channels instead of turning up the volume on the remote so they could listen to pterry! We got there... 🫣

Today is definitely one of those 'halp?' moments...

I really enjoyed the peer review I did last night actually. Sometimes it takes me ages and is not that enjoyable cos the paper probably shouldn't have gone out to review. But this was a really thoughtful study and it was nice to see new work happening in the space! #AcademicSky

Also bring throat sweets, especially if you're doing a poster. I guarantee you won't regret it!

So my dad had a urology procedure recently and I was worried he was gonna be stuck with a catheter permanently, but he's been so on top of everything (pee admin we call it 😂) and he totally nailed the trial without it! So proud of him and he's even got pelvic physio organised 🤗 go dad!!

I'm on holiday in Japan and gosh I love my 10 year old Olympus EM5II camera dearly, but I'm really starting to feel the memory card write times now... upgrade time? But it's been to many countries, torrentially rained on, busted out in -18°C temperatures and dropped half a dozen times. What a tank ❤️

Shh. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve built an academic career on some of this stuff. I got a paper published about a plastic chicken motion sensor that someone used to stop their wife with dementia going outside. That paper’s been referenced over 100 times now.

What an awesome time we had at the International Orthoptic Congress #IOC2025! I loved reconnecting with my UK pals and also meeting Dutch orthoptists Anne and Louise! Anne is supporting Mirjam Tilborg's Directions project at Hogeschool Utrecht about dementia-friendly eyecare 🤗

The language is not person-centred unfortunately, but the actual story is fun! Sometimes it feels like we're living in a headline from the Onion or Betoota Advocate anyway 😅

So hype for a weekend of geeking out with the squad 🤓 #IOC2025