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Many of us find it tough to explain our research in a few sentences to an audience with a completely different scientific background. But this is exactly what so-called Science Slam Talks are all about. The format is simple: explain your research in an engaging way, within 5 minutes using your choice of media. Show the audience how important, significant, different or simply awesome your research is, while staying general enough for someone with a different scientific background to understand the project. These talks are a great way for PhD students to practice their science communication skills. We were excited to sponsor this year’s Science Slam Talks at Vision in Science once again. In this blog post we talk to the 3 PhD Slam Talk winners, who were voted for by the audience.

 

The winner of this year’s slam talk competition was Christoph Sträter (CS). Christoph is a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. His project is of a theoretical nature and deals with experiments of cold quantum gases in optical lattices, an area which has become a versatile toolbox for testing and exploring concepts of many-body quantum theory.

Runner-up was Maria Claudia Salazar Rondon (MS). Maria is in the first year of her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne-Germany, in the group of Plant Immune Network Structure and Dynamics.

The third place went to Gayathri Jeyasankar (GJ), who is doing a PhD at the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research. She works in the area of structural biology, specifically in three dimensional cryo-electron microscopy of membrane proteins.

 

Could you tell us a bit about yourself (degree and current position) and your research and why you chose the topic for your Slam Talk?

CS: In our group we provide theoretical explanations for experiments done in labs around the world, or we propose new experiments. Specifically, I study the possibilities that add up to applying a periodic forcing to the optical lattice. By this, one can realize interesting physical models and phenomena, ordinary bosonic atoms behaving like anyons – a completely different particle type. I chose this topic for the slam talk because the physics behind it are very fundamental and easy to grasp, and of course since there is an obvious and funny metaphor for the “particle gender”.

MS: I work with proteins that mediate intracellular signalling communication during Plant Immunity. That is the main reason why I selected the topic for the Science Slam; I wanted to familiarize people with the idea that plant cells use a way of communication that allows them to react rapidly when under attack.

“I work with proteins that mediate intracellular signalling communication during Plant Immunity.”

GJ: I am interested in studying the structural changes that occur in a protein while performing its function. It seems like a portion is dancing at a nanoscale. I chose the topic because I freeze the proteins in order to trap them while dancing, so that it will be easier for me to reconstruct its movements at structural level.

 

The Slam Talks were very short – just five minutes – can you summarize your talk in five short sentences?

CS: The world is made of interacting particles, like electrons, photons and neutrons. All particles can be classified into two groups, depending on their ability to be in the same quantum state like position or velocity or not; bosons are social and fermions are not. Lasers only work because photons, which are bosons, enter the same oscillation mode to produce a strong single-color light wave, and the periodic table only exists since electrons, which are fermions, cannot sit in the same atomic shell but have to occupy higher shells. Theoretically possible though are anyons, which lie between bosons and fermions and behave “kind of social”. In our group, we proposed an experiment in an optical lattice, where anyons can actually be realized by periodic forcing.

MS: Plants are in constant contact with different organisms that in some cases cause them diseases, but how do plants know that they are under attack? How does the cell activate its defence? Well, plants present an intracellular communication that is similar to a WhatsApp chat, allowing cellular proteins to get in contact with other proteins and as a result activate different defence mechanisms.

GJ: Life is not static; dynamics exist from large muscular movements to nanoscale movements that occur within a cell. In order to understand the functioning of our body, we need to study the basic building blocks known as proteins that carry out all the necessary tasks. To perform their function, proteins move and we can observe by looking at the structural changes that occur within them. For this reason, I use electrons to visualise the proteins that are trapped at different states of motion by rapid freezing. With the help of computational resources, I am able to reconstruct the structural changes that contribute to the function of a protein.

 

What was your highlight of the Visions in Science meeting?

MS: The meeting provided a space and opportunity to get into contact with professors and researchers from different areas. During research you focus so much on a specific topic that sometimes it is complicated to keep track of all the different research areas that are developing simultaneously, and this event offered me the opportunity to catch-up in science.

GJ: The highlight for me was the panel discussion. It was really intriguing and thought provoking.

CS: I really loved the breaks in between; after getting lots of inspirational input you have the possibility to discuss with interesting and interested people about the visions you have just heard or you have just made.

 

Do you have any tips for other young scientists when they are presenting their work?

GJ: Know your audience. This will help to deliver the message clearly to everyone. One must also use simple but yet effective visual representations to help understand the concept.

CS: It is very normal that you lose more and more listeners during your talk. What I often do is to make little breaks and summaries during a presentation, where I then emphasize the possibility to re-enter the talk.

MS: Make yourself as clear as possible, try to use comparisons that people can easily relate to and more specifically, that they can remember. Always think about the audience you are communicating your research to. But most importantly, don’t forget to have fun; after all – as in life – the motivation for your research is passion.