The Biophysical Society Annual Meeting is always one of the highlights of my year. This meeting has become quite large and diverse, so no matter which direction my research is heading, there seem to be several overlapping communities relevant to that area at the meeting. My group has always found the Annual Meeting to be a great place to get feedback on our latest research, whether focused on new approaches, new models, or new mechanistic insights.
Which abstract category should I choose?
The breadth of the meeting can make it a challenge to find the right audience for your presentation, and a common question I hear from my colleagues is how to choose the best abstract category. This is not a trivial question, and should be given some attention during the submission process since the Program Committee will try to honor your choice when scheduling the abstract for presentation. The list of abstract categories provided might feel a little overwhelming, especially if your work falls in between categories or fits into more than one category. However, rather than thinking about which category best fits your work, you should use these categories to target your work to the best audience.
Most biophysicists have interests in biological questions as well as novel physical and chemical techniques to address those questions. As a project progresses, the optimal audience might well shift as well. For example, we use live cell microscopy to study hormone exocytosis, which might fit into a number of different categories. Sometimes, we are developing new approaches, so we would choose 10F Optical Microscopy & Super Resolution Imaging because we want to discuss our work with experts in imaging approaches. At other times, this work has focused on Ca2+ activity (4D Calcium Signaling), molecular regulation of secretion (4C Exocytosis & Endocytosis), or mathematical models of the stimulus-secretion coupling (8B Cellular Signaling & Metabolic Networks). Over a few years, a single focused project will be seen by a broad audience depending on the specific aspect of the project at that time. In each case, we make the choice based on where we expect to find the experts who can give us the most rigorous feedback on the work. This approach is most effective if you also tailor the presentation for your expected audience, which will also maximize their interest in your work. If you aren’t sure where your right audience will be, you can search through previous years’ programs.
Should I request a poster or platform presentation?
Whether as a presenter or in the audience, I enjoy both the poster and platform sessions. Both types of sessions are crowded with a wide range of attendees – including leaders in the field – and each has some advantages. For young researchers, posters are a great way to meet people. Personally, I have recruited almost every post-doc in my lab by first meeting them at their poster. The relaxed time constraints around the posters allow extended discussions with others who have similar experimental and scientific questions, which are just are not possible during a platform session. If you want to meet specific people at the meeting, you can contact them in advance and suggest that you meet at a specific time in front of your poster. This not only gives you a defined place to meet, but also allows you to show off your work.
The platform sessions give you a chance to speak in front of a larger audience. This can be unnerving for some, but public speaking is an important skill to develop no matter what your long-term career goals may be. The number of platform presentations is limited, and about one-third of the abstracts that request “Platform or Poster” can be accommodated each year. In choosing platform presentations, the Program Committee looks for abstracts that tell a complete story while also balancing the diversity of science and presenters. To increase your chances for a platform presentation, it is important to tell your story clearly and support it with data. I have encouraged my students to focus on posters until the year they are planning to defend their thesis. One thing to keep in mind is that a presenter cannot give platform presentations in consecutive years, so you may want to choose “Poster Only” in the beginning years of a project.
by David W. Piston, Washington Unversity School of Medicine in St. Louis