SEB Bulletin July 2007
SEB Supports...
Postgraduate Events and Prizes
Within the Department of Biology & Biochemistry, we run a number of postgraduate events. One such event held at the start of this academic year was a “Welcome Boat Trip”. This innovative event was primarily aimed at new postgraduate students, and involved networking and team-building games. The games provided students with the opportunity to develop their networking, communication and team-working skills, whilst enjoying a pleasant and relaxed social occasion where they could meet their new colleagues. Support from the Society for Experimental Biology enabled us to provide refreshments for all attendees, equipment for use in the organised games, and prizes for successful teams. In addition, the involvement of the Society for Experimental Biology supported our policy of encouraging all our postgraduate students to join a learned society. The event was very successful, with extremely positive feedback from students, and with a number of them subsequently applying for membership of the SEB.
Emma Lawrence
Postgraduate Administrator
Miss Lourdes Acosta Jimenez being presented with her certificate and prize for MRes Best Poster by the head of Department, Dr Richard Hooley, which the SEB sponsored at the University of Bath.
Media Bursary
As I am coming to the end of my PhD at the University of Leeds I have been exploring different opportunities in science away from the bench. By happy coincidence I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to work with Sarah Blackford at the SEB's Annual Main Meeting in Glasgow. Having had several opportunities during my PhD to present my own research to non-specialists I was relishing the challenge of explaining other scientists’ work to a more general audience.
Before the SEB Main Meeting, Sarah and I selected abstracts we felt would make newsworthy stories. I then liaised with scientists to put together press releases on their work, which were made available to the media the week before the conference began. I think we suffered initially as the conference began over a weekend, but soon we were fielding enquiries from all over the world. Our press releases were picked up by a number of sources, including British newspapers (The Telegraph, The Independent and the Mail on Sunday), BBC World Service, New Scientist, and even Woman's Hour on Radio 4! This experience gave me a real insight into how science gets into the media, how it is portrayed, and indeed how the scientists themselves dealt with this.
Appropriately the theme for the Education and Public Affairs sessions was 'Getting Popular Science to the Wider Public' which hosted talks from a variety of speakers with a wealth of expertise in different aspects of the media. I was particularly keen to hear what Tara Womersley, Press Officer from the University of Edinburgh, had to say. She raised several interesting points about how the media operates which perhaps scientists don't always appreciate. Firstly, they work on a much tighter timescale, and often require immediate responses. Secondly, it is not the same as publishing in a peer-reviewed journal and journalists, and indeed the public, often don't care about the same level of detail that scientists do. Furthermore, due to tight deadlines it is often impractical for scientists to proof read every single item that is written about their work. I can understand that this may make scientists reluctant to interact with the media, which I feel is a real shame. Given that many of us are funded by public money (and should therefore be able to justify our work to the taxpayers whose money we're spending) and given that the number of children taking science qualifications at school is falling, surely it is more important than ever that we promote science and get people interested!
Other highlights of the week for me included finally meeting many of the scientists whom I had liaised with prior to the meeting. I also thoroughly enjoyed the pre-conference networking event which gave newcomers the chance to meet a few other delegates prior to the start of the conference. I think is an excellent idea as I know how it feels to be at a conference of hundreds of people and not know a single one! It was great to hear how these people were getting on as the week progressed. Much fun was also had at the welcome event in Glasgow Science Centre; it made a refreshing change to have a wine reception in such a stimulating environment.
And wasn't it great that we even got a wee bit of sunshine - as a Glaswegian take it from me that this is something of a rarity in the city! Lastly, huge thanks to Sarah Blackford for all her help and advice, and for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
Gillian Dugan
SEB Press Officer