SEB Bulletin July 2007 - In this issue
If you read the Travel reports on pages 27 - 30 in this issue you'll see that some of our early-career scientists are taking advantage of the travel grants offered by the Company of Biologists to present their work at conferences and visit other labs around the world. They may be attending different events and working on wide-ranging projects but they all have something in common - they're getting out there! Take a look at their amazing experiences, the connections made, the potential collaborations, jobs and friendships offered to them. Getting connected is more important than ever and collaborative research projects between biologists, and amongst scientists of mixed disciplines, is on the increase. Evidence our recent Annual Main Meeting held in Glasgow (for a full report see pages 10 - 21). We had many cross-sectional sessions involving plant, animal and cell biologists and we also welcomed engineers to our biomechanics sessions. To enhance the chances of lone delegates making connections with others during the conference and to encourage those who had come in a large group to disperse, we held a very vibrant networking event on the Friday night before the conference began. Our regular networking events such as the Poster session, wine trail and conference dinner also served as a great medium for loosening the inhibitions with a glass or two of wine. And, of course, not forgetting the unforgettable experience of the Glasgow Science Centre's Welcome evening which allowed scientists to rediscover the wonderment felt by the public as they played with all the interactive exhibits and 'toys'.
At the more established end of the spectrum we can report that we are very pleased to welcome a new president to the Society this year which means a new vice-president and we also have a new Cell Section secretary too (pages 4 - 5). The SEB is a great place for networking and many of our members are involved with committees or organising sessions at our meetings - they have all raised their heads above the parapet and have succeeded in becoming more prominent as scientists and/or as well known personalities in their research field. We honoured many of these scientists at our conference with awards and prizes, as well as celebrating the work of two very prominent scientists who delivered the Bidder and Woolhouse Lectures (see pages 10 - 11).
One of our SEB members has been getting very well connected along with her colleague from Oxford-Brookes University. Anna Osterrieder and Imogen Sparkes recently took up the SEB's offer for one of its members to attend the 'Voice of the Future' event held annually at the House of Commons. Not only did they witness a question and answer session where young scientists were able to quiz members of the Science and Technology Committee they also met up with their own local Members of Parliament to raise particular issues in person (page 6). Lobbying and consulting with politicians is key to the health and future of science and, equally, getting science out to the public and promoting it through the media is important to keeping science on the social agenda. The SEB is active in this respect and even offers a bursary to encourage young scientists to find out more about how the media operates and to experience writing press releases - see page 7 for a report from our latest SEB press officer, Gillian Dugan, who had an exhilarating time at the SEB Meeting fielding calls from the world's media and linking them with our delegates - some of her press releases form the basis of our Teaching and Learning article on pages 24 - 25.
Céline Mouchel gives a really informative account of her experience of preparing and applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in our Horizons series (page 35), which will help those who are thinking of doing the same to make a successful application. She found out in May this year that she had successfully won a three-year Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) fellowship, a programme which formed the focus of one of our Young Scientist sessions during the Main Meeting (page 21). Céline chose to bring her fellowship to the lab of Ottoline Leyser in York who is featured alongside George Coupland and Richard Cogdell (on pages 8 - 9) as they receive one of the most prestigious awards - Fellow of the Royal Society. All are connected with the SEB: Ottoline was honoured as a SEB President's Medallist at our Main Meeting in Exeter in 2000; George is editing a Special Issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany and Richard is on the organising committee of the Photosynthesis Congress which the SEB is managing this year.
Conclusions? It's a small world. I remember going to a conference years ago where an eminent plant scientist was being honoured for a lifetime's work. During the course of her working life she had trained and employed countless postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers some of whom are now FRSs themselves and who have also done the same. The Family Tree of research scientists is vast and as intricately connected as the pathways they research. To many, 'networking' is a dirty word and implies that you have to cynically schmooze people or 'work a room' in order to make contacts and further your career. Don't be put off - it's not. It's merely a case of getting well connected!
Sarah Blackford
Editor