Tag: meetings

Diversity (of speakers, participants) at meetings: do something about it

Some unformed thoughts here but here goes.

Every so often I see a conference announcement and am annoyed by the XY/XX excess for the speakers.  Some recent examples

And more.

Now – I complain about this here and there on Twitter and the like

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But I felt that this needed a blog post to not get lost in the Twitter stream.  So here it is.

I note – I have posted about this issue previously: A conference where the speakers are all women? | The Tree of Life and for conference for which I am involved I have been trying very hard to work on the speaker diversity (not just XX vs XY, but age, career status, ethnicity, etc).  And it certainly can be difficult to make sure that diversity is there.  But the meetings I list above are pretty egregious.  The Genome Canada one features seven major speakers – all white males.  Yes, they are all big names.  But in biology, where women are reasonably well represented, it suggests a bias to me if a meeting can somehow only manage to invite and/or attract all senior, white, XYs to be major speakers.  Not sure what that bias is and it could be different in each case –  could be who is invited – could be the field itself – could be timing/nature of the meeting – could be something to do with families (e.g., perhaps women are invited but are more likely to feel like limiting travel due to roles in child care).

Also I note – biases are not necessarily affecting any one gender or ethnic group.  For example, I have generally stopped going to meetings/conferences that are on weekends and I have also stopped going to meetings/dinners after 6 PM because I do not want to skip out on time with my family.

So here is a plea.  Next time you are involved in organizing a meeting – make some effort to have a strong representation of diversity of speakers and participants.  For example, if you invite lots of women for example and all say no – try to figure out why and see if you can fix the issue.  Offer travel fellowships for students.  Offer child care or child activity options (even if you cannot pay for it – at least make it easy for people).  Make sure to advertise/promote the meeting to groups/institutions with a high representation of underrepresented groups.  Don’t give up if your first efforts don’t work.  Sometimes it can be difficult to make sure diversity levels are high.  But keep trying … it will help make the conference better and also will help the field in general …

For other posts on this topic see

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Social Biology of Microbes 2012 #SocialMicrobes12 wrapup via Storify

Meeting details: 

Welcoming remarks: 

  • David Relman (presentation) (audio)
  • James Hughes (audio)
  • Lonnie King (audio)
  • KEYNOTE: 

Sociomicrobiology: 

  • Quorum sensing, biofilms, and territoriality (presentation) (audio) E. Peter Greenberg, University of Washington
  • Moderator: David Relman DISCUSSION (audio)
SESSION I: Formation and Function of Microbial Communities

  • Moderator: Jacque Fletcher
  • Symbiont community complexity 
    • The fungal gardens of leafcutter ants
      • (presentation) (audio)
      • Cameron R. Currie, University of Wisconsin – Madison
    • The role of oxygen in shaping the structure and function of microbial communities
      • (presentation) (audio)
      • Thomas M. Schmidt, Michigan State University
  • Source-sink dynamics: 
    • Marine invertebrate-associated and free-living chemosynthetic symbionts
    • Colleen Cavanaugh, Harvard University DISCUSSION (audio)
SESSION II: Factors Contributing to Community Stability 

  • Moderator: David Relman
    • Social evolutionary theory, cooperation, and the expression of virulence in microbial communities
    • (presentation) (audio)
  • Sam Brown, University of Edinburgh
    • Ecological factors and processes during evolutionary transitions in Darwinian individuality
    • (presentation) (audio)
  • Paul Rainey, New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
    • Evolution of cooperation and control of cheating in the social amoeba:
  • Dictyostelium discoideum
    • (presentation: part 1 part 2) (audio)
    • Joan E. Strassmann, Washington University\
  • Swarming bacteria as freight haulage systems (presentation) (audio)
    • Colin J. Ingham, Wageningen University
    • Emergence and robustness of multicellular behavior in bacteria (presentation) (audio)
  • Joao Xavier, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    • Mathematical and computational challenges in the study of complex adaptive systems
    • (presentation) (audio)
  • Simon A. Levin, Princeton University
    • DISCUSSION (audio) page2image12752 page2image12912 page2image13072 page2image13232 page2image13392 page2image13552 page2image13712 page2image13872 page2image14032 page2image14192 page2image14352 page2image14512 page2image14672 page2image14832
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012
]
SESSION III: 

  • Summary of Day One: David Relman (presentation) (audio)
  • Edith Widder, Ocean Research & Conservation Association
    • KEYNOTE: Glowing corpses & radiant excrement: The role of bioluminescence in microbial communities
    • (presentation) (audio)
    • Moderator: Lonnie King DISCUSSION (audio)page3image6024 page3image6184 page3image6344 page3image6504
  • Jo Handelsman, Yale University
    • Interspecies interactions among rhizosphere and soil bacteria (presentation) (audio
    • Moderator: David Rizzo
  • David Low, University of California – Santa Barbara
    • Contact dependent mechanisms of communication in bacteria (presentation) (audio)
  • Vanessa Sperandio, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 
    • Interactions between symbiotic microbes, their mammalian host, and invading pathogens
    • (presentation) (audio)
    • Moderator: Carole Heilman
  • Jonathan Eisen, University of California – Davis
    • Phylogenetic and phylogenomic approaches to studies of microbial communities
    • (presentation) (audio)
SESSION IV: What More Do We Need to Know about Microbial Community Dynamics?

page3image14888 page3image15048 page3image15208 page3image15368 page3image15528 page3image15688

  • DISCUSSION (audio) 
  • Jared R. Leadbetter, California Institute of Technology
    • Discovery and applications of the metabolic diversity of microbial communities
    • (presentation) (audio)
    • Statistical tools for integrating community networks, spatial and clinical data (presentation) (audio)
  • Jill Banfield, University of California – Berkeley
    • Microbial community assembly and dynamics: From acidophilic biofilms to the premature infant gut
    • (presentation) (audio)
  • David A. Relman, Stanford University
    • Human-microbe mutualism in health and disease (presentation) (audio)
  • DISCUSSION (audio) 
  • Concluding Remarks (audio) 

Just got back from a meeting on the “Social Biology of Microbes”. Here are some notes from my trip and from the talks at the meeting, done via Storify. Here it is as a slideshow: http://storify.com/phylogenomics/social-biology-of-microbes-socialmicrobes2012.js?template=slideshow[<a href=”http://storify.com/phylogenomics/social-biology-of-microbes-socialmicrobes2012″ target=”_blank”>View the story “Social Biology of Microbes #SocialMicrobes2012” on Storify</a>]

And here it is a a full scrollable presentation


http://storify.com/phylogenomics/social-biology-of-microbes-socialmicrobes2012.js[View the story “Social Biology of Microbes #SocialMicrobes2012” on Storify]

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Social Biology of Microbial Communities

Off to DC for a meeting on the “Social Biology of Microbial Communities” and I thought people out there might like to see the schedule.  Going to try to live blog/tweet so stay tuned …

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Notes from my trip to #AAASMtg #EarthMicrobiomeProject #Storify

I am hoping to write up some more notes from my trip to the AAAS meeting in Vancouver. But for now these pics and this Storification of tweets and related posts will have to do … https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Slideshow version of Storification http://storify.com/phylogenomics/jonathan-eisen-at-aaas-2012.js?template=slideshow[<a href=”http://storify.com/phylogenomics/jonathan-eisen-at-aaas-2012″ target=”_blank”>View the story “Jonathan Eisen at AAAS 2012” on Storify</a>]

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

w/o a doubt the best aspect of #AAASmtg – giving my kids science schwag #GoScience

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Dear #AAAS, I am NOT embargoing my own talk & I plan to record it and post afterwards #embargowatch

Just got another email from AAAS regarding their big meeting in February in Vancouver where I am scheduled to talk:

—————————————-
This request for materials is from the AAAS media relations team and is separate from any you may receive from your symposium organizer or the AAAS Annual Meeting office.
—————————————-
Dear AAAS Annual Meeting Participant:


Thanks to all of you who uploaded materials to the AAAS Virtual Newsroom by Jan. 16. For those of you who have not submitted materials or want to submit additional materials, you may do so right up through the meeting. The materials will be available online to reporters, although we can no longer guarantee that we’ll be able to copy new
submissions at our expense for placement in the on-site library of speaker materials. We will try to include materials received in the next several days in our copy order, however.



You also can make printed copies (10-15 copies) yourself and ship them to Vancouver so that we can place them in the on-site papers library for reporters. Ideally, press materials should be on-site prior to your presentation. Please see below for appended mailing instructions.


Speakers and organizers can submit materials by going to:
http://www.eurekalert.org/aaasnewsroom/mcm/speakers


Your individual username and password for the site:


Please provide the following:


— A one-paragraph biographical sketch (not a C.V.)


— A short lay-language summary of your talk, beyond the abstract.


— The text of your talk, if available, or a related (ideally recent) technical paper, either as a Word file or a PDF. PowerPoint presentations are acceptable, but a full text will better serve reporters’ needs.


— Any additional supporting materials, including multimedia files such as JPEG or TIFF photos in high resolution (300 dpi) and/or digitized video clips.


IMPORTANT: Please note that all AAAS meeting presentations are strictly embargoed and your speaker materials should not be released publicly until the time of your presentation.


If you upload your materials by 16 January, we will copy them at our expense for placement in the on-site library of speaker materials, available only to newsroom registrants.


Please notify your institution’s press office of your AAAS Annual Meeting presentation as soon as possible. Your press office can help you submit speaker materials to us and can begin to generate media interest.
….

The thing is – I did not agree to “Embargo” my talk and as I wrote about before, I do not even know what that means.  I figured, in the interest of being “open” about my feelings about this, I should write to AAAS to let them know I was not going to embargo my own talk, and I plan to record my talk and post it afterwards:

To whom it may concern


I am scheduled to speak at the AAAS meeting and I am writing this in regard to the email attached below.  I do not support the notion of an Embargo for my talk and I am unwilling to participate in the embargo. I plan to post information about my talk to the web and to my blog and am writing to specifically let you know I fundamentally do not support the embargo nor did I agree to it when I agreed to give a talk at AAAS.


I also plan to record my own talk and to post the recording and the slides to various websites.  I am not sure if AAAS has a policy about that but wanted to let you know of my plans in the interest of not having any surprises.


Sincerely


Jonathan Eisen

Will report back if I get a reply … and maybe I can get Ivan Oransky to help make sense out of what a talk embargo means.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

AAAS meeting – is this one for embargo watch?

Giving a talk at the AAAS meeting in February in Vancouver.  I have avoided AAAS meetings previously because I do not like AAAS’s position on open access issues.  Given that AAAS is at least indirectly a supporter of the recent Research Works Act I am pondering whether or not I will boycott the meeting.   While I ponder that — I thought I would share the presenter instructions I just got from AAAS (see below).

Apparently, my talk is “embargoed” – though I am not sure I understand how that works for a talk (see the part I highlighted in yellow which, well, I almost certainly will not be following).  I do not understand actually what a talk embargo means – am I supposed to not share with people what I am working on so that every piece of data I present at the meeting will never have ben seen by anyone?  Or am I just not supposed to show my talk to anyone?  What exactly is a talk embargo?  And what will they do when I do not follow it?  Maybe Ivan Oransky knows.

I note – I am surprised AAAS does not try to require me to sign over rights to my presentation to them …

This request for materials is from the AAAS media relations team and is separate from any you may receive from your symposium organizer or the AAAS Annual Meeting office.

—————————————-

Dear AAAS Annual Meeting Participant:

If you have already uploaded your materials to the Virtual Newsroom for the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, thank you and please disregard the rest of this e-mail.

For those speakers who have not submitted materials, we’d appreciate your prompt attention to this request. We expect a good turnout of reporters at the meeting in February, and we’d like to provide them as much information as possible about your presentation.

Symposium organizers can help as well by uploading relevant papers or overview documents and encouraging your speakers to submit materials. Papers and speaker materials are for use by reporters in preparing stories and are not made available to general registrants at the meeting.

Speakers and organizers can submit materials by going to:
http://www.eurekalert.org/aaasnewsroom/mcm/speakers

Your individual username and password for the site:

Username: xxxx
Password: xxxx

Please provide the following:

— A one-paragraph biographical sketch (not a C.V.)

— A short lay-language summary of your talk, beyond the abstract.

— The text of your talk, if available, or a related (ideally recent) technical paper, either as a Word file or a PDF. PowerPoint presentations are acceptable, but a full text will better serve reporters’ needs.

— Any additional supporting materials, including multimedia files such as JPEG or TIFF photos in high resolution (300 dpi) and/or digitized video clips.

IMPORTANT: Please note that all AAAS meeting presentations are strictly embargoed and your speaker materials should not be released publicly until the time of your presentation.

If you upload your materials by 16 January, we will copy them at our expense for placement in the on-site library of speaker materials, available only to newsroom registrants.

Please notify your institution’s press office of your AAAS Annual Meeting presentation as soon as possible. Your press office can help you submit speaker materials to us and can begin to generate media interest.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Meeting of interest: 16th Evolutionary Biology Meeting at Marseilles

Just got an email about a meeting of potential interest and thought I would share:

It is my pleasure to announce that registration and abstract submission for the 16th Evolutionary Biology Meeting at Marseilles, September 18-21, 2012, is open. Please visit the web site of the meeting http://sites.univ-provence.fr/evol-cgr where you will find all relevant information. 

The following subjects will be discussed:

  • – Evolutionary biology concepts and modelisations for biological annotation;
  • – Biodiversity and Systematics;
  • – Comparative genomics and post-genomics (at all taxonomic levels);
  • – Functional phylogeny;
  • – Environment and biological evolution;
  • – Origin of Life and exobiology;
  • – Non-adaptative versus adaptative evolution;
  • – The « minor » phyla: their usefulness in evolutionary biology knowledge;
  • – Convergent evolution

Looking forward to your participation.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

My twitter notes from the #NASOneHealth meeting via Storify

I am posting here a wrap up of my notes from the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats meeting on Improving Food Safety Through One Health I just attended. I made a little “story” via Storify and that is what I am embedding below. More comments to follow I hope but wanted to get this out there.


http://storify.com/phylogenomics/tweets-and-notes-from-nasonehealth.js<a href=”http://storify.com/phylogenomics/tweets-and-notes-from-nasonehealth” target=”_blank”>View the story “Tweets and notes from #NASOneHealth” on Storify</a>]

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Art Meets Science at the Keck Center in DC

Some nice science-art on display at the Keck Center where I was for a NAS/IOM meeting today.  Here are some pics.
https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–