Surviving a Poster Session: The Rollercoaster of Emotions and Experiences

[franznietzsche]

My first time, and my mentor was in England that week, so I was all on my own. That was fun.

 

[Gokul43201]

What was your poster about, and where was the session at?

 

[franznietzsche]

What was your poster about, and where was the session at?

Student and Postdoc Research Symposium here at Los Alamos.

I presented the work I had done so far on asteroseismology of FG Vir. Had some interesting results, but a lot of concerns with them as well. The work had focused on some non-standard modifications to the stellar model codes we use that were motivated by stellar hydrodynamics work done by a few guys at U of Az who I met earlier in the summer. Still working on that project, hoping to have a paper written by the end of the summer (still 4 weeks away for me).

 

[Moonbear]

Good for you! That's quite an accomplishment to survive your first ever poster presentation without your mentor nearby to rescue you if needed. Was there any other senior member of the lab present to help?

 

[franznietzsche]

Good for you! That's quite an accomplishment to survive your first ever poster presentation without your mentor nearby to rescue you if needed. Was there any other senior member of the lab present to help?

No, I was quite on my own. The other student working on asteroseismology with my mentor had already headed back to school for the year, and the others were all working on completely different things. Although it wasn't an astrophysics conference, so there weren't too many people directly familiar with the material. However there has been some talk of me presenting this at the asteroseismology conference next summer

 

[Math Is Hard]

No, I was quite on my own. The other student working on asteroseismology with my mentor had already headed back to school for the year, and the others were all working on completely different things. Although it wasn't an astrophysics conference, so there weren't too many people directly familiar with the material. However there has been some talk of me presenting this at the asteroseismology conference next summer

Wow! Franz! That is awesome!
*pats Franz on the back*

 

[Danger]

Going by the reaction of the pros, and your description of the subject matter, I got to say congrats.
Now would someone care to tell me what the hell a 'poster' is?

 

[matt.o]

best way to survive a poster session is to stay away from your poster!

 

[Danger]

Thanks, Matt; that really cleared it up for me.

 

[franznietzsche]

Going by the reaction of the pros, and your description of the subject matter, I got to say congrats.
Now would someone care to tell me what the hell a 'poster' is?

Exactly what it sounds like. I described it to my non-science majoring friends back home as 'Professional Science Fair'. You have a poster that quickly summarizes your work, with some relevant descriptions/data.

 

[franznietzsche]

best way to survive a poster session is to stay away from your poster!

I did a bit of that. Went around and interrogated the other astrophysics presenters. One guy had done SPH simulations of planet formation in a 50 AU binary system. Interesting stuff. The girl who was next to me worked in the Detonation Experiments divisions. She got to fire projectiles at high explosives and blow stuff up in her research. I just get to play with computers . Of course, astrophysical explosions are much better.

 

[Danger]

Oh... okay. That sounds like it must be pretty tough. How the hell can you summarize something like an astroseismology study onto a piece of Bristolboard?

I might not be around for the answer. W just came upstairs and said 'Tell your girlfriend goodnight.' She can't get it through her head that this isn't some kind of online dating service. (As if I could ever be interested in a Bush fan... )
Anyhow, congrats again. Good work, dude.

 

[franznietzsche]

Oh... okay. That sounds like it must be pretty tough. How the hell can you summarize something like an astroseismology study onto a piece of Bristolboard?

Well, actually the display areas are about six feet by 3 feet (though I actually thought we had twice as much space, so I had waayy too much stuff).

I might not be around for the answer. W just came upstairs and said 'Tell your girlfriend goodnight.' She can't get it through her head that this isn't some kind of online dating service. (As if I could ever be interested in a Bush fan... )

Huh?

 

[SpaceTiger]

Ugh, conferences are really painful...especially the poster sessions. Glad to hear you survived.

 

[Gokul43201]

an astroseismology study

Asteroseismology - the internal structure of stars (Latin - I think: aster = star)

Good job, Franz. Maybe you can hook up with the girl-next-board and work on some explosions!

 

[Astronuc]

Congratulations, Franz!

Danger, a 'poster' is a summary of one's work, as opposed to a paper and presentation. Many scientific/technical conferences have poster sessions as well as paper sessions.

In a poster session, people wander around in the same room looking at different posters, as opposed to listening to one person give a presentation in front of an audience.

 

[Danger]

Huh?

She thinks that you're a girl. She thinks that anyone I interact with on line is a girl. I showed her Astro's picture, and she thinks that he's a girl . (I admit that there are some pretty hairy women in her family, but that's a stretch.)

Danger, a 'poster' is a summary of one's work, as opposed to a paper and presentation.

I think that I've got it. Is that then equivalent to the (abstract?) that comes with a paper?

Sorry about screwing up the name of the subject. I'm so used to other people's typos that I 'corrected' it automatically.

 

[Math Is Hard]

The girl who was next to me worked in the Detonation Experiments divisions. She got to fire projectiles at high explosives and blow stuff up in her research.

Oh, man, I really missed my calling!

Where's the green-with-envy smilie?

 

[franznietzsche]

She thinks that you're a girl. She thinks that anyone I interact with on line is a girl. I showed her Astro's picture, and she thinks that he's a girl . (I admit that there are some pretty hairy women in her family, but that's a stretch.)

I think that I've got it. Is that then equivalent to the (abstract?) that comes with a paper?

Sorry about screwing up the name of the subject. I'm so used to other people's typos that I 'corrected' it automatically.

No, posters have abstracts like papers do (sometimes the same abstracts, in my case I just reworked my poster abstract into A&A format for the paper I'm trying to get written). In my case, the poster was actually made from a set of powerpoint slides (which will also form the basis of a technical talk I'm going supposed to give to X division at some point. That will be scary, given that I will be giving the talk to some of the people who are the definitive experts in asteroseismology.)

 

[franznietzsche]

Oh, man, I really missed my calling!

Where's the green-with-envy smilie?

Well just think, if you want to make a living blowing stuff up, just become a physicist.

 

[Evo]

Congratulations Franz! Do you have a picture you can post?

 

[franznietzsche]

Congratulations Franz! Do you have a picture you can post?

Pictures? Nope. Although, there are supposed to be pictures of the session as a whole available to us at some point, no word on that as of yet.

 

[Lisa!]

Congratulations and damn you!

I might not be around for the answer. W just came upstairs and said 'Tell your girlfriend goodnight.' She can't get it through her head that this isn't some kind of online dating service. (As if I could ever be interested in a Bush fan... )
Anyhow, congrats again. Good work, dude.

Hmmm...maybe if I had a bf like you I felt the same way!