As I sit here in the wee hours of the last of 2024, I’m reflecting upon the past year which has been an absolute roller coaster, and on 2025 which will be a year of change. Change that I can influence, and larger changes in the world that reflect bigger changes than I can reasonably expect to have an impact upon.
Mostly 2024 was just grinding hard work and fighting so much nonsense at the federal level, the state level, the university level, and my department level that all threatens our ability to accomplish the science that we do. I can elaborate on all these things perhaps at a later date, but the political winds that resulted in a second Trump administration are threatening the very foundations of science and higher education in America. The NIH has already effectively been operating on a continuing resolution for years because of the GOP House intransigence on approving budgets. These issues have directly impacted me in ways that perhaps I’ll discuss at some point in the future, but not now.
The NIH used to have robust bipartisan support, but even that has fallen to political posturing, and there are some proposals within this administration to eliminate the very NIH institute that has funded so much of our work, the National Eye Institute (NEI). That is such a terrible idea from so many perspectives that it deserves its own writeup. I am working with others to advocate for its survival which will be an effort in 2025.
Locally here in Utah, the national political environment has resulted in culture wars being propagated upon higher education and the people within higher education, and our state legislators have taken it upon themselves to destabilize things that they don’t understand. This will ultimately result in the state of Utah losing good talent as we’ve already lost technicians, students, and I hear now, faculty who are planning on leaving the state because of this nonsense. What our legislature needs to understand is that the very best and the brightest in our state institutions are constantly being recruited by other institutions and Utah is no longer so nice that we can set those concerns aside.
It seems as though every year, at least for the last few years, I’ve been talking in these year end posts about how hard things have gotten. Last year’s year end post for 2023. And before that in 2022. We are still in a pandemic, but aside from those who refuse to vaccinate, lots of folks are getting vaccinated and the impacts of COVID will be less on them. I’m still angry at how that was handled and dismayed that we have complete knuckleheads being proposed to head up Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health for the second Trump administration, again harkening back to national issues.
Many of the themes that frustrated me in last year’s entry are the same for this year, including issues with my institution, the environmental issues here in Utah and globally, and the violence in Ukraine and Palestine. Those issues are still present obviously. Some I can do something about, and others I can advocate and discuss, but realistically I have no control or influence over. My resolution for 2025 is to recognize the things I can change as well as the things I cannot change or have influence upon, and work accordingly.
Some personal difficulties that I cannot control cropped up this year, and I will miss the year end/New Years letters from my Uncle Lance who passed unexpectedly this year, right before his daughter’s wedding which I also had to miss due to other things related to work that I’m still angry about.
My institutions policies on IT have been an ongoing thorn in my side and an incredible expense for the lab that I believe are unjustified and reflect fundamentally bad policy. This year I moved this blog to its current location on bryanwjones.com as well as the lab website to bwjoneslab.com from servers I bought and hosted in my office, as my institution has been making things increasingly toxic, expensive, and difficult for hosting content on our own servers with the previous domains. More on that later as it increases my out of pocket expenses not insubstantially which has been an ongoing theme, but this will also simplify some other things down the road. I am also working with peeps at the National Library of Medicine to future proof Webvision, ensuring that regardless of my institutions policies, the content on that server will survive and flourish.
I also completely abandoned Twitter/X by deleting 18 years of Tweets, and leaving two up. This was a tragedy for so many as it was a community of so many disparate groups from Black Twitter, to Photography Twitter, to Science Twitter and many more groups of people including marginalized folks that found each other and community there. That Elon Musk came in and turned it into an incredible cesspool of fascism, racism, ads, and toxicity was so disappointing and infuriating. However, most of my community on Twitter has moved on to a better, bluer place: Bluesky. I’m there as @bwjones.bsky.social. Look forward to seeing you over there.
There were certainly some upsides to 2024 including lots of good news on research funding that will keep the wheels on the bus including a Stein Innovation Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, as well as solid research productivity for the year including 7 manuscripts from the lab or in collaboration with other labs, invited seminars at the NIH/NEI, a trip to Berlin to give a TEDx talk (snapshots here) (full video here), made new friends, traveled to Birmingham Alabama for the first time to give a talk and chat with them about some things, ran into old friends unexpectedly on the streets of NYC, served on study section for Research to Prevent Blindness, saw the 2024 eclipse, visited Tallahassee, Florida for the first time to give a talk there, gave a talk at Johns Hopkins and talked with them about some stuff including starting some new collaborations which I am glad to say have already paid off with a grant from Hevolution with Jennifer Elisseeff. I traveled to Seattle for ARVO 2024 and got to spend time with wonderful folks there, and got to see the aurora borealis for the first time from the ground while up visiting with my Aunt Francie which was an absolute treat. I traveled back to Berlin for the HHMI Connectomics conference, and to Toronto for the Fighting Blindness Canada study section. I realized too late that one of my favorite people on the planet was there at the same time as I, but we missed each other. This was rectified a month later for a quick trip to NYC where I got to spend some time with dear friends from all over the world. In October, I got to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, and Becca got an RPB Career Development Award. November gave us a tragic national election result that throws so much more in terms of planning into chaos, but also solidifies other plans in response that I’ll talk more about later. The final trip was back to Buenos Aires for ISER 2024 where I got to spend time with other wonderful people from around the world and talk vision science. One of the final couple bits of news was that another one of the undergraduates in the lab, Selena Sullivan got accepted to her choice of medical schools, and I was awarded the John Frederick Carter Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology. Hooray!
What’s up for 2025? Change. Lots of change I suspect, and I’ll bring a camera along for the journey.
There will be trips to Pittsburgh, as well as back to Louisville and NYC. Trips back to the Bay Area, as well as a couple of trips to places I’ve not been before, Prague and Pécs. Perhaps Greece again? We’ll see. There will be lots of other news upcoming that I’m excited to share when appropriate.
Finally, I am incredibly grateful to the people in my life including my spouse, and the colleagues and friends in the lab who help make all of the work we do possible. Jia-Hui, Jamie, Crystal, Becca, Matt and a new member of the lab, Eric. I am so grateful to you all and to the folks who fund our science, including an incredible debt of gratitude to Gabe Newell who has made a generous donation to the lab to help us along a new path exploring the retina as a model of Alzheimer’s disease. I will forever be grateful to him for that.
Camera: Apple iPhone 15 Pro
Exposure: 1/25
Aperture: f/2.22
Focal Length: 14mm equivalent
ISO: 1,000
This photograph was made at the TEDx Berlin conference standing with 4 other folks from around the world who worked in diplomacy, and journalism.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 3,200
This shot of Ben Pedigo @bdpedigo.bsky.social was made in a Berlin beer garden with spectacular light behind us from a setting sun.
Camera: Apple iPhone 15 Pro
Exposure: 1/1285
Aperture: f/1.78
Focal Length: 24mm equivalent
ISO: 80
This image was made on the train into Toronto from the airport in an effort to avoid the notorious Toronto street traffic. As we approached the famous tower I looked up and initially was disappointed in the reflection of the train lights, but somehow I like how this turned out.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 6,400
This image of Seth Blackshaw @sethblackshaw.bsky.social was made after study section while we went out to a local Toronto bar to visit before walking around in search of noodles. Again, the light coming into the space was glorious, and I loved the time spent visiting and walking the streets of Toronto in discussion.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 4,000
I liked this image of my friend, colleague, and speaker coach Stephanie Igunbor made during a rehearsal for the TEDx Berlin conference. They had secured a wonderful space for rehearsals with a spectacular view of Berlin and excellent light. This shot was made shooting into the light, but it worked as the whole room was suffused with it.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/2
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 320
This shot of my friend and colleague Michael Chiang @michaelfchiang.bsky.social was made in Seattle on a quick breakfast meeting with a mutual friend Nancy Parmalee. I showed up a couple of minutes early to scope out the light and sat with my back to a huge window to provide big, soft overcast Seattle light.
Camera: Leica M-P 240
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 3,200
This was a totally opportunistic photo of my friend and colleague Ron Gregg while on a trip to Louisville. The photograph was made in an elevator with surprisingly good light and reflections. His green shirt made the shot for me. I’ll be visiting them again in the next few weeks and am looking forward to more wonderful conversation.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 12,500
This photograph of my friend and colleague Greg Schwartz @gregscwartznu.bsky.social was made in my office during a visit to the Moran to give a talk. Photographing visitors to my office is a thing, and I was delighted to finally get a portrait of Greg there.
Camera: Leica M9
Exposure: 1/45
Aperture: f/2
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 800
My colleague Afua Oteng Asare dropped by to visit and talk career planning and funding, and was kind enough to sit for an informal portrait, another of the In My Office series which if the light is right on the window behind me, absolutely wonderful.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/2
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 4,000
I had the delightful opportunity to visit with Elisabeth Glowatzki from Johns Hopkins on a trip to deliver a seminar at the University of Utah Neuroscience Program. The room where we met was blessed with huge windows to the West which provided this beautiful huge, soft overcast light from behind.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/3000
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 320
Walking out of a discussion with my friend and colleague Malia Edwards at ARVO 2024 in Seattle, we were greeted with this image of the Seattle skyline and two other colleagues sitting at a high top in a meeting. I love the space in that building and the lighting was spectacular from all the windows.
Camera: Leica Monochrom
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 12,500
The final image of this year’s favorites is of my friend and colleague Valeria Canto-Soler at the ISER 2024 meeting in Buenos Aires. This portrait was made in the Confitería Ideal, an absolutely majestic café and restaurant that has been in continuous operation since 1912 where we were talking plans about a recently funded research project that we will be collaborating on together.