Go to scientific meetings
I just attended a meeting at the Allen Institute focused on early-career researchers, stem cells, and developmental biology, and I absolutely loved it. The talks were fantastic, the interactions were wonderful, and seeing my graduate student’s poster full of data… it all just filled up my little PI heart.
Although it has been nearly a year and a half since I had my kiddo, I have to admit that I really have not jumped back into attending scientific meetings. Life has been busy, kid FOMO is real (I don’t want to miss his milestones), travel feels complicated, and there is always something that needs to be done in the lab. Somewhere along the way, I genuinely forgot how much I love attending scientific meetings. This one reminded me.
So… my thought for the week… for the trainees out there, if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend attending at least one scientific meeting each year. I know meetings can be expensive, and attending meetings in person is not equally accessible to everyone. But if you see a meeting that piques your interest, and you can go, then go!!!
Some unsolicited advice… Even if you are an introvert (*raises hand*), here are six reasons to attend scientific meetings (at all stages of your research career):
Inspiration. Even PIs get into scientific funks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my field (yay cell signaling!), and I love the science we do in the lab… but when you spend a lot of time focused on the same set of questions, utilizing similar experimental approaches, getting caught in the nuance of refining your experimental setup… your scientific world can start to feel really small. It is refreshing to spend a day hearing about work well outside your own area of expertise. At this meeting, I was in awe of the beautiful images and live cell work people were doing. A lot of it had very little to do with my own research, but that almost made it better??? I was reminded me how creative science can be. I mean, at the end of the day, we are all get (or are getting) PhDs in problem solving, right? Meetings are also a great place to learn about new techniques and approaches you might never encounter otherwise. You may hear about a method that changes how you think about your own project (ahem… HCR for me) or simply see an experiment so elegant that it inspires you to push your own work a little further (I wanna do live cell imaging now!).
Meeting new people. It’s just fun. Science can sometimes feel very isolating. We spend a lot of time at the bench, at our computers, or talking to the same small group of people in the lab. With meetings, you get to step outside of that circle. Just when you think no one could possibly care about your obscure scientific problem… you meet other people who care about equally obscure things.
Forming connections and collaborations. Collaborations often begin with a very simple conversation… “we have a tool that might help with that,” or “we have been seeing something similar.” I met my postdoc mentor at a meeting — basically after being like… I love your papers, what are you doing in the lab now? I think trainees sometimes imagine that collaborations are arranged through very official channels between established PIs. Sometimes they are… but also sometimes two people just meet because they stood next to each other at lunch and started talking about an experiment.
Sharing your work before it feels finished. The thing I love about meetings is that, usually in the side conversations, you get to talk about your obscure findings with people. Meetings are so helpful when you are still figuring things out. Explaining your project to people outside your lab forces you to identify what the central question actually is. The questions you receive can reveal what is confusing, what is interesting, and what experiment might need to come next. You will also discover that different people notice completely different things in the same dataset. Someone may be excited by the result you had been treating as an annoying outlier. Someone else may know a paper, technique, or a reagent that you had never considered.
Seeing your own progress. This is especially true for trainees. Day to day, it can feel as though your experiments are moving painfully slowly. You remember every failed assay, every confusing result, and every week spent troubleshooting. Then you assemble a poster and realize: Oh. I actually have a lot of data. Watching my grad student present a full poster reminded me of how progress can accumulate quietly over time. As a mentor, I get to watch that growth happen, but meetings give trainees a chance to see it for themselves.
Remembering why you do science. This may be the most important one. A meeting gives you permission to step away from the immediate pressures of research (the experiments that failed, the manuscript that needs another revision, the grant deadline, the never-ending emails) and spend time thinking about ideas again. I always feel rejuvenated after meetings. A kind reminder that, despite all the trials and tribulations, science is really fun, and I'm grateful this is my career.
In summary — go to meetings. They are worth it!
