Online symposia and groups to develop students' skills
In an Essay, "Look who's talking too: graduates developing skills through communication" in the September issue of Nature Reviews Genetics (Nat. Rev. Genet. 8, 724-726; 2007), Eleni M. Tomazou & Gareth T. Powell of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, write that "greater opportunities for young scientists to present their doctoral research to large general audiences will encourage development of transferable skills and involvement in the scientific community." In their article, they describe how students communicate their research and explore the benefits of student-led meetings.
The entire article can be read via the link above, but it is worth reproducing another part of it here:
"One way in which students can overcome geographical and financial boundaries is through the internet. The recent First On-line EMBL PhD Symposium is an interesting new twist on the conference format that has great potential. Collaborations between students at different institutes can also help to gather sponsorship. A strong example of this is the PhD Student Conference, which was organized (in rotation) by young scientists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the Institute of Molecular Pathology–Institute of Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre in Vienna, Austria, the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in London. Most importantly, young scientists need not wait for opportunities to organize and communicate to be provided for them, nor must they arrange an international conference for every subject — events can be equally successful as small, simple and local. Talking to faculty members and senior scientists at one's own university or institute is the best way to find out what is possible. Exchanging ideas and experiences with other PhD students who have already been engaged in this kind of activity is also important. The PhD students at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have created a Nature Network group in order to encourage discussions arising from SCAMPS (Sanger-Cambridge PhD Symposium) for University of Cambridge PhD students, but also for more general discussions about life as a PhD student. The group is open to all students participating in or planning similar events, and we hope that this will foster collaborations between institutes and lead to large, well regarded national and international PhD student meetings involving young scientists from around the world. So start talking!"
See here for the SCAMPS Nature Network group.
