Liam Acheson
PhD Candidate (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs) and Research Officer (St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney)
June 2023
In each Connections we ask someone from the alcohol and other drugs sector to share a little about their work and life.
This weekend I will...
Spend some time out of the city. I haven’t decided where yet though!
I'd originally planned to work...
As a classical musician. I went to the con for my undergrad and played tuba causally with the Sydney Symphony before moving to science. I’ll always love music but sometimes when you make art your profession it loses some of the magic.
The qualities I most value in my colleagues are...
Compassion – to clients and to colleagues. If you’re kind, caring and put the effort in then everything else just follows.
I'll never forget...
My first clinical trial participant – if you ever get a chance to work on a clinical trial take it, it’s like nothing else.
If I had more time, I'd...
Read more, think less and spend more time travelling to remote areas of the world.
I'm most scared of...
Submitting my thesis!
For my next holiday...
I’m not sure yet, but it’ll be a big one once I’ve submitted my thesis. I’ve always wants to spend some more time in Eastern Europe, so maybe there.
I can't get enough of...
Books, music and solitude.
I'm really terrible at...
Turning off – but I feel like that’s a pretty universal experience for late-stage PhD candidates. Maybe we should figure something out about that…
Career wise, I’m most proud of...
Leading a clinical trial as a student – so much work but it was all worth it to hear from our participants how we were able to help them.
My big hope for the drug and alcohol sector is...
That we can make changes to public perception, which are reflected in policy that makes real change.
The sector's biggest challenge going forward is...
Shifting away from the over medicalisation of substance use. Addiction can’t always be addressed in a doctor’s office, and until we really start to address the social determinants I’m worried that large scale change will be slow.
Liam is a PhD Candidate with the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW Sydney and the National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (NCCRED), and a Research Officer at the St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney Alcohol and Drug Service. Liam’s work focuses on clinical trials of novel treatment options for stimulant use and withdrawal, and mixed methods clinical research investigating substance use, sleep and the experiences of people who use drugs interacting with health services.
