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The Friday Noon Seminar Series is a forum in which Departmental graduate students and postdoctoral fellows present
the results of their research efforts. Departmental members can receive an abstract on thursday; if you wish an abstract and are
not yet receiving one, send an email to the Web Master. Friday Noon Seminars are
presented Fridays at 12 pm (hence the name) in A220 Langley Hall.
Information for Speakers
Who is eligible to speak - An annual presentation of research is a requirement for a degree in the MCDB graduate program.
The Friday noon seminar series is also available as a forum for other Departmental graduate students, who should arrange for a slot by email (jlawrenc@pitt.edu).
Students registered for BioSc 2050 are expected to attend the Friday Noon Seminars to pass the course.
BioSc 2050 format - Seminars are scheduled for a 60 minute time slot. This time is apportioned as follows:
- The public seminar should be planned for 40 minutes, no longer.
- After the presentation, 10 minutes will be available for general questions and discussion.
- In the remaining 10 minutes, speakers will discuss their seminar with their peers; Biosc 2050 participants will remain after the general audience has left.
Seminar attendees should provide constructive comments to the speaker. Potential discussion points could include the following:
- What were the strong points? Let the speaker know what s/he did well.
- What were the weak points? Both the speaker and speakers-to-be can benefit from learning where some of the audience had problems.
- Were the visual aids appropriate and helpful? Do crowded? Confusing jargon?
- Were visual aids visible from the back of the room?
- Was the introduction too brief for those outside the field? This is one point where a mentor may be too close to the work to judge.
- Were the methods - and the logic behind them - clear? Again, opinions from your peers - not your mentor - can be of value.
- Was the right amount of experimental detail included? Were you overwhelmed with data tables? Or were you unconvinced of broad generalization with little support?
- Was the seminar interesting? Did the speaker engage the audience?
The Friday Noon Seminar can be a tremendous resource to assist students in developing their seminar presentation skills. Regardless of career choice, a
successful scientist must be able to convey their ideas effectively and efficiently to an audience, be that an undergraduate classroom, a scientific seminar, or a grant proposal.
Abstracts for presentations - Abstracts to seminars help prepare the audience for the presentation, leading to a greater appreciation of your work.
Take some time to compose and abstract (no longer than 250 words) and email it to me no later than the Wednesday afternoon before your presentation.
After editing (if necessary), I will forward the abstract to appropriate Departmental personnel prior to your presentation. Abstracts for presentations should include
a brief introduction to the subject (what in formation is critical to understand what you did), a description of your findings and the methods used (if necessary),
and interpretation of these results.
Introduction to your presentation - Your lab PI will introduce your talk, placing your work in context with her/his overall research plan.
However, you the speaker should still provide adequate background to your particular project. If your lab PI cannot attend your talk, you should
arrange for a thesis committee member - or senior member of the lab - to introduce your talk.
Missing your seminar date - If you find that you are unable to deliver your seminar on the specified date - for ANY reason - arrange for
someone else to take your place; this will typically entail swapping dates with another speaker. Once this has been accomplished, please notify me.
Do not leave this until the last week; I can not rearrange the schedule for your benefit. If you miss your presentation due to a last-minute illness,
have your thesis or postdoctoral advisor call me about your dilemma. I will arrange to place you into another slot.
Seminar tips - Keeps these thoughts in mind for a smoother talk:
- Provide a context for your work by reviewing the critical work done in this field that forms the basis for your project.
- This is not a lab meeting; your audience has diverse backgrounds. Explain the background so that any graduating senior can follow; don't use excessive jargon that will obfuscate your message.
- Be very clear in what hypothesis is being tested. Don't just dive into a long series of experiments without any indication as to why this road is being taken.
Remember that experiments provides data to buttress or to refute a hypothesis.
- If appropriate, explain why a particular experimental route was taken, and not alternative approaches.
- After showing the data, give us a conclusion or interpretation that sets up the next experiment. Its nice to see that a band lights up on a Southern blot, but what should we conclude from these data?
- Offer any major alternative explanations for your data, and offer counterpoint arguments. Remember that a significant portion of your audience may be thinking along similar, alternative routes.
- Label your Figures and Tables clearly, especially autoradiographs; we don't know what lane "A" is.
- Make your figures large enough to be read at the back of the room.
- Point to the screen not to the overhead projector.
- Speak to the audience, not to the screen or to the projector. Eye contact is important in keeping an audience engaged.
- Show us the squiffy experiments too; someone out there may have a clever idea to solve a problem.
- Show enough data to demonstrate the point, but we don't need to see every blot you've ever done.
- At the end of the talk, summarize your results and draw conclusions.
- Project future experimental questions raised by your research. Why are these the most important experiments to do next?
- A credit slide is fine, but don't spend inordinate amounts of time thanking people at the end. Your audience comprises busy people.
- Get feedback on your talk from your advisor as well as Biosc 2050 participants, both on the science and on the presentation.
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