Posted on by Itumeleng

Twitter and conferences: things to consider

As the winter FINALLY loosens its grip in the Northern hemisphere (sorry for you, poor Southerners…), I welcome the warm weather and start planning my conference season. Attending conferences is an integral part of the graduate school experience, and with this honour comes great responsibility. As with many aspects of modern living, the use of social media apps like Twitter at conferences has increased dramatically in the past few years and these have provided the chance to interact more frequently with other scientists. As an avid Twitter user, I have found it very useful to stay connected and informed about talks I couldn’t attend. But – and this is a big one – the use of Twitter at conferences is not without its controversy. Read here and here on discussions that highlight the concerns with live-tweeting at a conference. Another Twitter user (@online_academic) recently published a book on this very topic, “Twitter for Academics”. Here, I will try illustrating how I use Twitter at conferences and “Twitter-etiquette”[1].

Firstly, most conferences (if not all) will have a conference hashtag that twitter users use to discuss the conference; for instance, a recent conference I attended had the hashtag #ISME16. It’s important to always use this hashtag in all your conference tweets – this ensures that people following conference updates can see your comments/tweets.

More importantly, I find it useful to think before you tweet. In most cases, the work being presented at the conference is new and not yet published. I try to keep that in mind, and make the question/comments short (well, you only have 140 characters :-)). Besides, as scientists we are accustomed to writing concise sentences ;-). Clear and concise questions/comments always promote discussion and re-tweets (more re-tweets= a wider audience). Such comments tend to be effective, instead of simply stating obvious statements that do not engage your audience.

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Where possible I try to make sure I tag the speaker or related people in the tweet. In an earlier conference (Society of Nematologist), I made such a comment and was well received.

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Lastly, I use it to share great news that may be announced at the conference – for instance when South Africa won the bid to how ISME in 2020.

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Now, dear reader, I do not want to leave you with one side of this story. There is a dark side to using Twitter at conferences. Personally, I tend to lose interest when people are tweeting every slide and giving a blow-by-blow account of the presentation instead of summarising the talk in a single tweet. AIso, I prefer not to tweet pictures of people looking sad/bored and more importantly I try to tweet pictures that promote equality/diversity ( I know most conference still have a disproportional male:female ratio of speakers) #Feminism #WomenofScience #WomenScienceDay. A recent blog post by renowned communication specialist of UNDP Mehmet Erdogan (@mehmeterdoganIV) explores these ideas further — it’s worth a read.

So, you see dear reader, we ought not be afraid to engage and use social media at conferences.I hope this blog encourages you to engage more and not be intimidated by using social media at conferences. It was through Twitter that I was able meet some of my collaborators. Remember that Twitter is just a tool we use to interact with other scientists, but it cannot replace face-to-face interactions. So, next time you are at a conference think of a person you might want to meet and check if they are on Twitter. Use this platform and ask yourself how could I use it to meet people in same field? Have I met or identified anyone who could be a possible collaborator? Once all these questions have been answered, the next step is how to approach/form collaboration with people you meet – but I will leave that for another blog.

met at conference (1)

P.S…In this picture, I met my science hero (Charles Greer of McGill Univerity) at a recent conference ( I had been following his updates on Twitter) and Angel Valverde (University of Pretoria) brilliantly photo-bombing us 🙂

 

 

[1] Personal accounts on what worked and what did not.

Posted on by Itumeleng · 3 Comments

So, you are doing a Ph.D in biology?

If you’re a life science Ph.D student, you’ve had this question before. Usually followed by raised eyebrows and confused looks, which signal the second question – What will you do with that? The reasons and motivations for pursuing a Ph.D depend on the individual, but let me just try to explain what a Ph.D in biology means to me.

Firstly, it would be remiss of me to not mention that currently there is no Nobel Prize in Biology! But, as an aspiring Nobel laureate, you can take solace in the fact that in recent years the Noble Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to biologist. Studying biology today has changed drastically since the days of Darwin and Mendel. The multi-disciplinary nature of modern biology is the reason why three biologists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 for their work on “Mechanistic studies of DNA repair”. Naturally, this caused some uproar from the Chemistry community, but the argument was laid to rest here. Now – to you, the aspiring Ph.D biology student – I say do NOT be deterred by the “haters”  🙂 . The path you have chosen has many twists and turns, but the rewards far outweigh the immediate costs.

Now, if knowing that there is a (veeeery slim) chance that a biologist could win a Nobel Prize is not motivation enough, a recent publication by by American Society of Cell Biology highlighted where recent Biology graduates are now: not even 10% of those starting their PhD end up in tenure-track faculty positions…

Despite all the challenges and frustrations experienced by Biology PhD students, I could not see myself doing something else. I have ALWAYS loved biology, and  it was the only subject that made sense to me in school. I grew up with a medical background (with my mum being a healthcare professional) and being exposed to it made me love it.  I must admit at that point I wasn’t sure what “IT” was, and I thought I wanted to be a medical doctor. . . Please reader, do not judge me too harshly for what I am about to tell you –  Upon completion of high school, I promptly began studying for my medical degree at UCT’s medical school. Those were the WORST two weeks of my life! I simply could not see myself playing the role of Dr. . . Even when my friends and I played Dr-Patient, I always preferred being the patient (I may have been influenced by the rule that patients ALWAYS got a piece a candy after the Dr’s ‘exam’). So, you see, although Biology was in my blood, medicine was not my calling. It seems that life is not without a sense of irony: although I cannot see myself being a human doctor, I see myself being a Dr of Biology 🙂

To go back to the core of this blog – Yes, I am doing a PhD in biology and unlike my friends in other fields or accounting (a career choice I can’t understand!) I’ve NEVER have a ‘bad’ day at work. Sure, my experiments have some ‘kinks’, but I don’t have a 9-5 work schedule, and I have the freedom to answer the questions that matter most to me. My work (where, remember, you spend most of your waking hours) is VERY rewarding! I ask this of my fellow PhDs: reclaim your pride and shatter the glass ceilings. That Nobel Prize in Chemistry is now attainable! There is no reason to be riddled with anxiety when asked if you do a PhD in biology. Be proud! There are bigger question to ask yourself: what legacy will you leave? What kind of mentor do you want to be? What contributions is your work making to the field of biology?

[1] American society of cell biology infograph of status of PhD (biology) holders