How To Show Off at Scientific Presentations?

Showing off and design — these are the focal points in science, especially in the Netherlands. I found this somewhat surprising, as I was brought up to believe that one should first understand their work thoroughly and excel in it before considering presentation and marketing. 

However, here, every presentation requires a splash of vibrant visuals. And people carry Macs even when resources are tight, while our phones are on the fritz. I discovered that one graduate student even opted for a multimedia screen instead of the traditional paper version to set himself apart while making a lab poster.

The more driven students even dress formally in suits, aiming to project a more serious image. During lectures, they bombard instructors with various, often senseless questions to stand out. It’s amusing, but eventually, you realize you’ve entered a distinct culture and must take part in this trend. 

I’m contemplating a new computer purchase, and I’m leaning towards a Mac, despite its lower specifications compared to HP. What would my boss think?

I’ve begun posing foolish questions like everyone else, and interestingly, my boss appears quite pleased about it. I’ve also begun taking breakfast to work.

Must I Blend In?

I’ve started having lunch with students regularly since working during lunchtime is seen as dull. There’s no way around it — you must blend in.

Moreover, scientific results are encouraged. So I compromise by occasionally easing off during work hours and making up for it in the evenings at home. 

It may sound strange, but it’s likely others do the same. The university seems to favor gifted individuals who are a bit lazy.

I’m not a fan of posturing, but job security comes first, so I’m conforming like everyone else. It’s a bit reminiscent of primary school.

Overall, I’m noticing more similarities. Much like in primary school, where “nerds” weren’t popular, people pretended not to study at all, and the classroom environment was hermetic. Similarly, the lab is an isolated place now.

Both scenarios have a shared goal: earning recognition from the teacher (boss). In high school, objectives vary, as students aim to enter different fields. 

In college, there’s a mix of objectives as students pursue different paths. Eventually, you find yourself back in a smaller group, striving to stand out in your narrow field, with the goal of impressing the boss (teacher). The cycle restarts with posturing, rivalry, and envious glances.

Despite everything, I’m optimistic. I fared better in elementary school than in high school and college. My results stood out, and I was emotionally independent and determined to excel.

Coping with stress was a challenge, impacting my health. Today, stress still takes its toll.

And this week was particularly tough due to issues with a recommendation for a summer school application. However, I managed to resolve the problem in the end.

What Does It Take to Push My Complex PhD Project Forward?

Regarding work, we’re working on an efficient algorithm to create a graph with a fixed 3-vertex subgraph distribution. It’s more complex than it appears and highly necessary, as certain triples are overrepresented in the cortex. According to Song, Sjöström, Reigl, Nelson and Chklovskii (2005), recordings from local cortical circuits show certain three-neuron connectivity patterns. These patterns occur far more often than would be expected in a randomly wired network. Investigating the network’s properties with this overrepresentation is crucial. 

While several labs globally work on functional themes, none have successfully implemented a network with a distribution of all 13 possibilities, usually focusing on just one. I’ve devised a spin-glass method that works on networks up to 200 vertices, but larger ones are slow, and patching them together artificially detracts from the desired outcome. Spin-glass formulations like this are a well-established way to frame network partitioning as an energy-minimization problem, as Reichardt and Bornholdt (2006) showed for community detection in complex networks. According to Milo et al. (2002), generating randomized network models that hold specific small-subgraph counts fixed while reshuffling the rest of the connections is a standard way to test whether a wiring pattern occurs more often than chance would predict. It’s challenging as it generates unintended side effects, and handling motives becomes complex, impacting the network’s desired shape.

This challenge is causing delays in our research. A colleague with expertise in this area has a newborn baby and limited availability. And my daily supervisor is rather unpredictable, so the task has fallen on my shoulders.

I’m confident I can tackle it, but the question remains – how long will it take? I’ve been invested in this project for half a year, feeling the pressure to deliver sooner than later.

Life Outside the Lab

That’s my story — a routine life, working on a physics master’s degree in the evenings, squeezing in exercise, and unwinding with movies. My fiancé infected me with Liam Neeson films, so I indulge in that from time to time. It’s undeniably good entertainment.