Capturing Your (Research) Flag

By Dejan Jotanovic

The journey throughout ResBaz will lead you many steps closer to many things: finding the best research tool, deciphering your research question, stumbling upon potential collaborations. While all this forward momentum is positioned to be wonderful for research advancements and growth in both academia and industry, let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.

I urge you, therefore, to take a step back and ask yourselves this:

Why are you doing your research?
What has brought you here?
How will your research benefit the world we live in today?

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You navigating the wiley windy roads of research

Upon registering for ResBaz on Monday morning you will receive a strip of coloured fabric corresponding to the stream you’ve enrolled in. 6 streams. 6 colours. I urge you to wear your colours and wear them proudly. Use them as an arm-band, head-band, make-shift scarf, belt. In the words of songstress Cyndi Lauper, “Your true colours are beautiful / like a rainbow”.

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A potential yellow team (admittedly very androcentric)

The fun doesn’t stop there. By day 3 I urge all ResBaz attendees to untie their colours, grab a marker and write + finish the following sentence:

“I hope my research helps the world by….”

Once completed we’ll tie these research flags all around and throughout the bedouin tent.

Simple. Together, we’ll take a step back and reflect on what we, as researchers, are here to do. And this all fits in neatly with our broader goal: to create a community of researchers within a shared space. When asked what research principle you believed most underpinned ResBaz, the largest response was, “we believe in cross-disciplinary research networking”. By stripping off your colours you’ll no longer be tied to your tools, your data, your disciplines. Instead you’ll be united by a principle strongly rooted in the belief that research is a societal good.

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Display your flag proudly.

But why do all of this so overtly? Because we want to make noise. We want you tweeting, taking photos, conducting interviews. Sharing your notes, feelings, ideas, experiences.

We want loud research. Being a researcher means much more than thinking of a hypothesis, crunching numbers and publishing papers. It’s about sharing your knowledge and aiding the public understanding of research.

Sometimes you need to take a few steps back before you make the running leap forward. ResBaz - your research flags - are thus all steps towards becoming next generation digitally skilled researchers.

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ResBaz Key-Stories!

At a typical academic conference keynote presenters will talk about their research. While that’s all well and good, what you don’t get to hear so much about is their story. How did they get to where they are today? Why are they so passionate about what they do? We’ve picked three of the most interesting people we know in academia and have asked them to present a “keystory” instead. Here’s a little about each of them:

Monday 

Dr Jee Hyun Kim
@About_Memory

Head, Developmental Psychobiology, The Florey, The University of Melbourne
“Thriving under pressure: Harvest diversity"

Jee is a self-proclaimed queen of nerds whose PhD completion in Psychology at the University of New South Wales was slowed down by her dedication to saving Azeroth 2005-2008. Following a postdoctoral training at Michigan University, she moved to Melbourne to become the youngest laboratory head at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Her work focuses on the neuroscience of good and bad memories underlying anxiety and addiction in childhood and adolescence using rodent models.

She has received various awards and major grants including the University Medal in Psychology and the Australian Psychological Society early career research award. Since returning to Australia in 2011, she has won grants totalling 3 million dollars as the Chief Investigator A including Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, ARC Discovery Project Grant, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants, and NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. In 2014 she received the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award.

She strongly believes in the importance of treating mental disorders early in life, a topic she shared at TEDxMelbourne. She features regularly on radio and television to discuss memory and forgetting, and lists Beyonce, Kerrigan, and Ronda Rousey as her inspirations. She believes recruiting a diverse group of people in her laboratory as key in her success in the most difficult period of transitioning from early to mid-career scientist.

Tuesday

Angus Hervey
@angushervey 

Co-Founder of Future Crunch, Manager of Random Hacks of Kindness

“What happens when you finish your PhD? Lessons from the frontline (from someone that almost didn’t make it)”

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Angus is a science communicator, with a background in environmental economics and international political economy. Using a combination of evolutionary psychology, history and political economy and he analyses science and technology trends and what they mean for business and society.

After an early career in Cape Town as a successful entrepreneur and lecturer, he moved to London where he managed Global Policy, a leading international publication whose advisory board included Nobel Prize winners such as Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen and legendary innovators such as Muhammad Yunus and George Soros. This was an introduction to politics and economics at the highest level, and gave him an insider’s view on issues such as financial regulation, environmental management and international development.

In 2012, following the completion of his PhD as the Ralph Miliband Scholar at the London School of Economics, he moved to Melbourne. Frustrated by the lack of intelligent discussion around future trends in Australia, he co-founded Future Crunch, a forum for critical debate on the transition from the industrial to the digital era. He is also the Australian manager of Random Hacks of Kindness, a global initiative started in 2009 by Google, IBM, Microsoft, NASA and Yahoo which connects technologists with social changemakers.

Today more than ever, he combines a global perspective with the belief that change comes from small groups of people motivated by fairness, optimism and a belief in the transformative power of science and technology.

Wednesday

Alberto Pepe 
@AlbertoPepe 

Co-founder of Authorea, data consultant, Research Associate at Harvard University.
“On leaving academia, without ever saying goodbye”
Loosely based on, https://www.authorea.com/users/3/articles/5287/_show_article

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Alberto Pepe is the co-founder of Authorea, an online place to write research together. He is a “recovering academic” with previous Ph.D. and Postdoc work in Astrophysics and Information Science. He holds degrees and fellowships from Harvard, UCLA, CERN, and University College London. He was born and raised in the wine-making town of Manduria, in Puglia, Southern Italy.

Hey researchers, get on Twitter!

by Dejan Jotanovic

On the 27th of May, David Flanders and I were invited to speak at @unimelb’s “Social Media Professionals” about how @ResPlat can help researchers engage in social media. 

We’re here with the social media professionals of @unimelb! @dfflanders and @heyDejan are speaking soon! pic.twitter.com/TUqUwzEPo7

— ITS Research (@ITS_Res)
May 27, 2014

Our slides can be found here, and most of the content I spoke on is repeated in these blog posts: 1, 2, 3. 

So why should you, as a researcher, start tweeting? Well first, because it aids the public understanding of science. Twitter is that magical bridge between the academic and public. 

Second, you only have 140 characters to express yourself. No time for jargony, convoluted speak. Twitter sharpens your writing! (this was written in less than 140 characters).

.@AstroKatie +1. Twitter is therefore a fantastic tool in sharpening academic writing.

— Dejan (@heyDejan) 
July 1, 2014

Katie Mack agrees. 

Third, Twitter is academic currency. Can tweets predict citations? (that caught your eye, didn’t it?) Why not check this study and find out? Also check out LSE’s Impact Blog. LSE love Twitter. As an academic, you become your own (usually) self-managed brand. Twitter is the perfect way of spreading your ideas, your research papers and forming collaborations. Jump on board! 

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An infographic outlining the role of Twitter in Science Publication & Communication - source at bottom of image. 

Fourth, everyone’s on it - or at least they’re starting to. Stay ahead of the curb. You’d be surprised at how many of your colleagues are furiously tweeting away. 

Making a master spreadsheet of all unimelb academics on Twitter. Glad to see my school, @Government_UoM, leading the way.

— Dejan (@heyDejan) 
July 1, 2014

Want to be included in my beautiful spreadsheet? Ping me! 

Closer to home, Dr Katie Mack, with more than 12,000 followers, has had enormous success navigating the twittersphere. “AstroKatie” (as she’s known more commonly in her community), writes:

I jumped right in and found it to be an excellent resource for keeping up with astrophysics and the world-wide academic community… When a scientist on Twitter veers away from the pure science and talks about the life they’re balancing with (or building around) a research career, it helps break down stereotypes and increase public trust in science. I think it can be an especially good opportunity for women or minorities in science to become role models for young people hoping to follow the same path.

Read the rest of “Unlocking the secret of tweet success” here.

The academic community is growing. Interest in science is growing. Twitter is growing. I urge all researchers, academics, and University students to get on board and join the movement. Let’s make it trend-y!

What can you do? Forward this blogpost to colleagues, friends and other community members you think need a little Twit nudge. I have about a million other resources which might aid in this Twitter revolution, so ping me! I’m also more than happy to provide some Twit-Lit (Twitter Literacy). 

Tweet ya later! 

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