March 9, 2017
Written by Jackie Ohmura
As a PhD candidate interested in a career in academia and policy, attending the 2017 AAAS conference was an indispensable experience. The conference included a diverse assortment of talks and workshops, while providing other career promoting resources such as providing a speed mentoring workshop and professional headshots tothe attendees! Throughout the weekend, I was able to present myresearch at the student poster session, as well as attend talks directly related to my work. This includedsections focusing on energy infrastructures in North America, Europe, and Asia as well as green chemistry. The seminars at AAAS provided a different perspective from field specific conferences. Exploring the interplay between policy, the integration of technology in society, and the development of science, the AAAS seminars gave a wider view of research impact on society. Presenting research at AAAS also differed from that of presenting at field specific conferences. It was a great opportunity to describe my work to not only other scientists outside of my field, but also members of the journalism community.
As readers of this blog are presumably interested in the policy and career building portions of the AAAS conference, I also want to take time to detail my experiences attending the AAAS workshops and non-research based sessions. As an early career scientist, I found both offerings to be extremely helpful. With respect to workshops, I had a great experience at the speed-mentoring event. At this event, conference attendees rotated tables every 15 minutes to speak with a different ‘mentor’. At the start of the event, mentors introduced their backgrounds so that each attendee would be able to seek out mentors best suited for their career trajectories. As a result, each attendee had an extremely tailored experience. I, personally, talked to mentors with great perspectives on blending academic careers with policy. With respect to the plethora of non-research focused sessions, I mainly attended sessions focused on science communication and career pathways. As an example of content, the session ‘Science Communication Strategies in Academic, Government, and Non-Profit Sectors’ brought up a lot of great pointers on communicating effectively based on the audience. One such pointer was direction to the writing tool ‘compass box’ to assist in organizing scientific communication aimed at the general public.
In conclusion, the workshops and seminars afforded at the AAAS conference were an extremely enriching experience. Nonetheless, I found the most rewarding part of attending the AAAS conference to be interacting with the other attendees. The members of the community were so enthusiastic about serving policy through science, interested in learning about my experiences, as well as helping each other realize their goals. To me, the conference was also a great reminder that science policy is filled with a growing community of supportive individuals.