What to wear to research presentations

[PhizKid]

My P.I. tells me to wear a full on formal dress suit, short of a tux, but other professors have told me that their students have attended with just a dress shirt and khakis and that a dress suit is actually too much for something like a poster presentation and could almost make me look bad...is there a correct etiquette for this kind of thing?

 

[mfb]

What exactly do you mean with "research presentation"? Presentation where? In which area? With which educational background?

Physics:
Some scientific conference? A dress suit can be seen at the level of professors (especially in theoretic areas), rarely for PhD students.
Some presentation for media/politics/funding related/...? I think a dress suit is fine.

 

[PhizKid]

Oh, I forgot to mention the specifics in my post...just an undergraduate poster presentation at a symposium for physics/chemistry/biology/engineering. I think the fields are all mixed there.

 

[Choppy]

In general, these things default to "business casual" but I would go with what your supervisor tells you. It's not impossible that he or she want to convey a certain level of formalism from everyone in the lab or tha he or she is aware of something you're not.