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Category Archives: Scientific meetings
Ten steps to optimizing learning at large conferences
Active conference attendance can make all the difference in how much you learn at a large meeting with a blizzard of overlapping sessions, posters, and eating venues. A few steps before, during and after can help you get the most … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific community, Scientific meetings, Scientific societies
Tagged #AOS_BC_22, AOS, Birds Carribean, meetings
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Improv for scientific communication with Aniek Ivens
How I wish I understood you, but I have no idea what you are talking about. You seem friendly and animated and clearly love your research, but what is your question? Why do you like this figure so much? What … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Creativity, Science writing for the public, Scientific meetings, Talks
Tagged improv, outreach, science communication, talks
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What can you give others at a scientific meeting?
My undergraduate advisor, Richard Alexander of the University of Michigan once told me that there was nothing I could do better for my career than to give a great talk at a national meeting. Unfortunately, the converse was also true, … Continue reading
An undergrad primer for attending scientific meetings
Undergraduates can benefit from attending scientific meetings even more if they have a plan. This plan should be focused around what you want to learn. The meeting overall will be broader than your specific interests, so it is good to … Continue reading
Posted in Posters, Presentations and seminars, Scientific meetings, Travel, Undergraduates
Tagged Meeting, posters, talking to strangers
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Remembering Bill Loomis, a Dictyostelium colleague
Bill leaned towards me, slightly lopsided but intent, holding a glass of white wine at an angle that almost kept it from spilling on me. It was clear he wanted to figure out what I was up to, not quite … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific community, Scientific meetings
Tagged colleagues, Loomis, obituary, science
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Thought of going to a Gordon Research Conference on talking plants?
If I had some spare time, I would love to learn more about plant volatiles, so I would go to the GRC on them. Sometimes the best meetings are farthest from your expertise. If you go to such, GRC meetings … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific meetings
Tagged Gordon Research Conference, GRC, plant volatiles, the smell of summer, Ventura CA
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Should you ask that question? Thoughts from NSF
I’m at the Advisory Committee for the Biology Directorate of the National Science Foundation. We have just had a powerful talk by Jim Olds Assistant Director of Biological Sciences on biology generally. (Assistant Director is Director as far as I … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific meetings
Tagged dialogue, information, power, questions, status
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Who is studying the rest of the eukaryotes? The protistologists!
It is a cabinet of marvels where Russians draw meticulous illustrations of spines and spikes, where mitochondria are optional but always leave their shadow, where roots are elusive, basic biochemical pathways variable, and new discoveries can be made at the … Continue reading
Recipe for studying symbiosis
What do scientists who identify first as symbiontologists study? OK, maybe I invented that term, but something brings hundreds of people to meetings where the only thing they have in common is that they study symbiosis. What do sponges, … Continue reading
Posted in Research, Scientific meetings, Scientific societies
Tagged creativity, GRC, Lisbon, research questions, Symbiosis
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What is fair communication from a meeting? GRC?
I’m at a Gordon Research Conference, a new, wonderful one on Animal Microbe Symbioses. This first one was conceived by Nicole Dubilier and Ned Ruby. They wrote the proposal, got the funding, chose the speakers, then held their collective breaths, … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific meetings
Tagged collaboration, exclusivity, Gordon Research Conference, GRC, scientific secrecy
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Sociobiology 