Description

These seminars are destined for PhD students members of the Doctoral School in Life Science only.

The aim of these seminars is to practice your presentation skills in front of friendly audience, but also to develop your critical assessment skills by asking questions.

It is also a great opportunity to meet fellow PhD students and learn about the great diversity of projects in our Doctoral School (as a complement to the Annual PhD Meeting).

These seminars are ideal if you have just started your PhD, are about to start a new chapter of your thesis, or would like to discuss ideas for futures studies or research protocols. You can also use the seminars as an opportunity to present new results or to practice for a conference talk, your mid-thesis meeting, or your PhD defense.

All PhD students are requested to present once at the seminars, but we highly encouraged you to attend these seminars every month.

Format & Audience

A PhD student gives a 10-15 minutes presentation, followed by a 15-20 minutes question/discussion session, where the audience can ask questions and/or provide constructive feedbacks.

The audience is composed of your fellow PhD students within the Doctoral school. The PhD projects range from primate behavior to microbiology, to plant physiology or mosquitoe-transmitted-diseases. The seminar topics therefore cover a wide range of biology related research fields. It is therefore recommended to keep the talk short and accessible to all audiences (unless you are practicing for a talk with a specific required format).

The seminar is always followed by an apero to continue the discussion, or simply to socialize with your peers. 

The next dates:

• TBD                      

Would you like to give a presentation?

Please write to the organizing team: Sandra Le Bissonnais and Camille Cornet or sign up here

Date: First Thursday of each month

Schedule: 5:30 pm onwards

Venue: University of Neuchâtel, Faculty of Science, room A017 

ECTS:

- 0.5 ECTS for a presenting a talk (Scientific activities).  Each PhD student can only get credits for presenting once a year. After the seminar, please send a confirmation email and your abstract to the Doctoral school academic coordinator.

- 1.0 ECTS for organizing these seminars during 1 year (= 10 seminars) (Transferable skills)

- no ECTS for attendance only

A note about the Imposter Syndrome

The initial idea for launching these seminar series, was to help you fight the so-called Imposter Syndrome. However, these seminars are far more than that and you should feel welcome to participate no matter what.

What is the Imposter Syndrome?

PhD students and scientists in general often suffer from the imposter syndrome, which is not a disease, but a crippling feeling of not being good enough, being in the wrong place and just generally to be a fraud.

More about it here, here, and here.

Presenting your work in front of a friendly audience, receiving constructive critical assessment and honest feedbacks on your research project, and being gently pushed away from your comfort zone can reduce this feeling and make a significant difference in your self perception and your worth as a scientist. 

We are aware that this solution might not work for everyone, but we would like to offer the opportunity. Moreover, getting more experience in presenting our research can only be good for everyone.