“Selling your science, selling yourself”
The GSN Indibano is not just a conference, but an excellent platform for capacity building and training of postgraduate students in skills they require in their career as scientists. Apart from communicating scientific research findings through peer-reviewed scholarly journals and conference presentations, effective dissemination of scientific findings to a wide audience remains a challenge, not only for postgraduate students but also for established scientists.
Part of the reason for this is that science communication training is often not offered to science students during their undergraduate or postgraduate studies at most South African universities. As a result, they often struggle to communicate their scientific research findings effectively to both a scientific and non-scientific audience.
Themed “Selling your science, selling yourself”, this year’s proceedings kicked off with a science communication workshop offered by brand and communication strategist Charlie Kuzmanich, Dr Marina Joubert, a science communication researcher at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Professor Nox Makunga, a biotechnologist from Stellenbosch University, Professor Wayne Twine, Mrs Rhian Twine and Dr Lucia D’Ambruoso.
With vast teaching experience in corporate companies, Charlie Kuzmanich emphasised the importance of developing and marketing your own personal brand to enable you to communicate your scientific findings effectively to a specific audience. Personal branding is dependent on strong narrative and should be ubiquitous and ever-evolving.
Dr Marina Joubert, a science communication expert, encouraged postgraduate students to start exercising science communication to the public early in their careers as it is often more difficult to do so at a later stage. She showed Indibano participants how to use a science communication toolbox.
In her presentation, Dr Lucia D’Ambruoso provided an international perspective on science communication in multi-level, intersectoral collaborations.
Millions of people all over the world are constantly sharing an extremely wide range of fascinating, quirky, funny, irrelevant and important content using social media platforms. While we may not know the future of social media, its ability to distribute information to a wide range of users quickly and effectively presents new opportunities for scientists to engage with a diverse audience.
Professor Nox Makunga, who has recently been recognised as one of South Africa’s most ‘visible’ scientists, advised the students to utilise social media platforms effectively to communicate their science and also to forge relationships through interaction with other scientists via professional networks such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate.
