April – May 2025 Highlights
Two of our members have been recognised in Australia’s top 100 Best Scientists for 2025
Professor Gary Sacks and Professor Tony LaMontagne have been recognised in the top 100 best Social Sciences & Humanities scientists in Australia. On May 23, 2025, Research.com released the 4th edition of its annual ranking of the best social sciences and humanities scientists. This yearly report aims to spotlight outstanding scholars and the impact of their work across academic disciplines. It also seeks to support the global academic community by helping institutions and researchers discover key contributors in these areas. Tony LaMontagne was additionally recognised with the Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities Leader Award for 2025.
Also recognised in the list are Professor Steven Allender and Professor Samantha Thomas. Congratulations to everyone on this prestigious recognition.
Congratulations to:
- Deakin Distinguished Professor Ali Hutchinson, Prof Anna Ugalde, A/Prof Nikki McCaffrey along with fellow Deakin and external collaborators (Daly, R., Kiss, N., Denehy, L., Steer, C., McCaffrey, N., Ugalde, A., Prado, C., Hutchinson, A., et al), were awarded a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant of $1,997,048 titled: TeleCARE: A personalised, clinician-supported, virtual care telehealth exercise, nutrition, education, model for cancer related fatigue. Led by IPAN’s Prof Robin Daly, the project will evaluate whether TeleCARE, a clinician-supported virtual care telehealth model of care, can improve fatigue, quality of life and self-management behaviour in cancer survivors.
Read more - Prof Linda Sweet and Dr Vidanka Vasilevski have been awarded a 2024 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles Medical Research Future Fund of $2,922,893.68 over 5 years. Led by School of Medicine colleagues Prof Peter Vuillermin and Dr Samantha Dawson, the project titled Food PRT-E clinical trial will test whether an intervention delivered by midwives improves maternal mental health and child learning outcomes in rural and remote communities. The study will investigate whether a midwife-delivered prenatal dietary intervention can prevent perinatal depression and child neurocognitive vulnerability in regional and rural communities.
- Dr Renee Fiolet, along with Dr Jen Whan-Cooper, and A/Prof Jessamy Gleeson (Faculty of Arts and Education) and an external First Nations collaborator, have been awarded Barwon Health funding of $82,126 for a project titled Aboriginal Health Improvement Initiative – Barwon South West. This project focusses on enhancing First Nations peoples’ experiences of Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centres across the Barwon South West of Victoria.
- Dr Renee Fiolet, part of a team of interdisciplinary researchers, service partners and mental health and peer led suicide prevention organisations, have been awarded a Stream 1 Mental Health Grant 2024 funded by the Medical Research Future Fund ($10M 2025-2030). Led by Professor Victoria Palmer, UoM, the project titled: ‘Casting the Net for What Matters: The ALIVE National Centre’ is a consortium for equitable wellbeing and mental health systems transformation.
- DHE welcomed two new team members, Kerrie Lawrence who is on secondment covering for Sophie while she is away and Dr Crystal Lee who is a familiar face for a number of the DHE team.
Kerrie Lawrence
Kerrie is joining us for 12 months as Senior Administrative Officer, covering maternity leave. She has over six years’ experience at Deakin across research ethics and support roles in the Faculty of Health and Research & Innovation Portfolio. Welcome Kerrie!
Dr Crystal Lee
Crystal is joining us as a Senior Research Fellow at DHE. She brings extensive experience in conducting systematic reviews and large- scale epidemiological analyses focused on chronic diseases. With expertise in obesity, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, Crystal adds a wealth of knowledge to the team, and we’re excited to welcome her aboard. - DHE released their 2024 summary as an innovative infographic. The team reflected, “As we soar through 2025, it’s a great time to reflect on what Deakin Health Economics achieved in 2024. Our dedication and hard work continue to drive impactful research that supports healthier communities across Australia and around the world.”
Download the Deakin Health Economics 2024 summary infographic
Yokohama City University nursing staff visit Deakin University and Monash Health (5-7th March 2025)
Deakin University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONM), in collaboration with the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research-Monash Health and Deakin University Partnership recently hosted visitors from Yokohama City University and University Hospital. Professors, lecturers and nurses from Yokohama City University met with SONM Professors Nikki Phillips and Ana Hutchinson as well as Amy Brown from the Institute of Health Transformation to understand research conducted through SONM and IHT. The visitors also met with SONM nurse teaching staff, and observed both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching to understand nursing education offered at Deakin University.
On their last day, the Japanese visitors also met with Monash Health’s Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery Katrina Nankervis and Deakin Distinguished Professor Andrea Driscoll to gain insights into Monash Health’s spatial design, building structure, hospitality, nursing care, and nursing research to inform future redevelopment of Yokohama University Hospital. The visitors were given a tour of Monash Health’s newly refurbished Adult and Pediatric Emergency Departments (ED), the Psychiatric Triage Service, and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Professor Nao Tamai described that the visit provided the team with “invaluable learnings as we work toward the redevelopment of Yokohama City University and Hospital.”
Special thanks to A/Professor Stephane Bouchoucha for organising the visit, Cherene Ockerby for organising the morning at Monash Health, and to Monash Health nurses Emma Hansen and Michael Schilling for the informative tours.
We thank Professor Tamai and her team for visiting us, and we look forward to future visits with our international colleagues !
Photo caption: Japanese visitors (including Dr Tomoko Akase, Professor, School of Nursing; Dr Nao Tamai, Professor, School of Nursing; Dr Mayu Fukuda, Lecturer, School of Nursing; Yuka Tateishi, Deputy Nurse Director, University Hospital; Maiko Takahashi, Head Registered Nurse, University Hospital; Hitomi Itoh, Registered Nurse, University Hospital; Hideyuki Yokota, Manager of Nursing Department Administration) with Deakin Distinguished Prof Andrea Driscoll and Dr Eva Yuen from the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research – Monash Health Partnership, in the reception area of the Monash Children’s Hospital.
Visiting Scholar based with the Disability and Inclusion Team
Professor Tobias Bernasconi is the Chair of Pedagogy and Rehabilitation for People with Intellectual and Severe Disabilities at the University of Cologne, Germany. Tobias, his wife Bernadette (who is also an academic working in special education) and their three children are here until the end of August 2025. Tobias will be working with the Disability and Inclusion team on our shared interests of enhancing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for people with complex communication needs including those from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, older people with intellectual disability with dementia, and people with multiple and profound intellectual disability. Tobias is running a workshop on the Cologne AAC system on Friday 18th July at Deakin Downtown. Bernadette will be connecting with special education teachers and visiting schools. You can contact Tobias on tobias.bernasconi@uni-koeln.de and Bernadette on bernadette.bernasconi@uni-koeln.de
Recent Conference presentations
- Dr Eloise Litterbach, Dr Elizabeth Holmes-Truscott, and Professor Jane Speight attended the PsychoSocial Aspects of Diabetes (PSAD) Scientific Meeting in Romania
PsychoSocial Aspects of Diabetes (PSAD) is an international network of researchers, clinicians, and people living with diabetes. We share a passion for improving psychosocial research and care in diabetes. Each year, PSAD hosts a scientific meeting to promote research excellence, share knowledge, and encourage translation into practice. This May we attended the 29th PSAD Annual Scientific Meeting in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Read more of their conference reflections.
- Dr Elizabeth Holmes-Truscott presenting at the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) World Diabetes Congress in Bangkok, Thailand
- Professor Tony LaMontagne was invited to be a plenary panellist for the National Suicide Prevention Conference, held in Perth on 20-22 May 2025 (900 registrants), speaking on Work-related suicide and burnout.
Go back to the June 25 Newsletter
