As part of her outreach and collaboration within her Ph.D., Babs created and led a panel of renown scientists in various fields to talk to us about "translating science", meaning explaining our science to any age and any background. The panel consisted of Maya Wildgoose, Zack Valdez, Faith Kearns, and Andy Fell.
I was participating as a student, and also as media reporting. I live-streamed, or more correctly, live-tweeted the panel's discussion. Babs led the panel through some questions and also managed questions from the audience. After the panel discussion, we had lunch, then broke into small groups where we could talk to the panelists about perfecting our "elevator pitch". Most people are aware of the elevator pitch, but in science, this could be used as a way to gain a collaborator, or a new mentor in your field. Or to even just gain interested contacts in institutions you've wanted to be apart of. I'll admit that even I, with maybe the least amount of research experience compared to the rest of the audience which was filled with graduate students and professors, still had trouble breaking down my science into a chew-able, tasty soundbite.
To this day, the idea of translating your science sticks with me. It's a concept that everyone could work on--communicating at each other's level.
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