With a difference!

The SAYAS Blog ran for many years with the same formula. Towards the end of each year we would put out an advert for the SAYAS Blogging Competition – entrants needed to submit a blog post in which they introduced themselves and the work they are doing as either postgraduates or postdocs in South Africa. A panel of members of SAYAS would then evaluate the 100+ submissions to choose just four bloggers.

Over the years, you have met these cohorts of bloggers. Each month, you would hear from each of the four bloggers, and would follow their journey through the year. These bloggers represented different fields of science, and different universities. But… it was only four bloggers. And only those four (of over a hundred) bloggers received the training in science communication.

This year we tried something different. We allowed everyone who was interested in applying to attend a workshop on Science Communication. The workshop took place during an afternoon in early August via Zoom. Presenters included Ozayr Patel and Sheree Bega from the Mail and Guardian, our former SAYAS Bloggers Dr Mauro Lourenco who spoke about his post on the IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Lonwabo Makapela who spoke about how her blog posts helped her process living in three countries during one year of her PhD, and Mukhtaar Waja who spoke about #dayinthelife vlogging and how it helped him focus in on his discussion chapter edits. I also spoke to the group about elevator pitches.

Following the workshop, the participants were then able to write and submit a blogpost to appear on the SAYAS blog. Yes – every participant would be able to appear on this blog. They could write on their journey as a postgraduate student, or their field of science, or both. They had a week to do this. Over the next few months you will be reading their posts.

Do you have 100 posts to read – interestingly no! Although a lot of people showed initial interest, only 28 people attended the workshop, and only 7 submitted blog posts. Only 6 revised theirs on time. We hope to repeat this process in future years – because that is still 2 more people blogging than we would normally have, and 24 more people receiving science communication training. The disjunct between interest and enthusiasm, however, is interesting.

Science communication is an important step in bridging the gap between paywalled scientific papers and the general public. It remains a key interest of the South African Young Academy of Science, and certainly a key interest of mine. Just last month, I was the very proud recipient of the 2023-2024 NSTF Communications Award, and of course – all in the name of a good hook – I dressed up in a Taylor Swift at the Grammy’s inspired outfit! And I guess it brought me luck. It goes to show, that while we all have the pressure of publishing, lecturing, admin and feedback to our co-authors, science communication increasingly is being recognised in the Academic space.

So – enjoy the next few months of blogs from a wider range of students, from a broader reach of scientific domains, and hopefully these will encourage you to venture into science communication