Science for Progress

because science is fundamental in the 21st century

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42 Entering Year Three, Dawkins and Eugenics & Ranking Unis – with Bart and Dennis

This episode marks the official end of the second year of this podcast! (unfortunately, there was still no present for Bart – consider becoming a Patron to help!) Apart from the plans for year 3, Bart & Dennis discussed the hot topic of the week: a provocative tweet by Richard Dawkins on Eugenics, and the dos and don’ts, and pros and cons of university rankings.

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about Lauriane Nallet Khosrofian

41 @RealScientists Tweet their SciComm – with Upulie Divisekera

For this episode, Dennis talked to Upulie Divisekera, the Australian molecular biologist and accomplished science communicator who co-founded “@RealScientists”. She shares how she got access to platforms with large audiences, and lessons from her SciComm experiences: that you should use storytelling and never underestimate your audience.

If you are on Twitter and like to learn about science and the people behind it, you probably know @Realscientists, the Twitter rotating curation account. There, real-life scientists sign up to talk about science and their daily lives for a week at a time; showcasing the diversity of scientists, and breaking the trope of academics as an elitist group.  

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

40 What does Society Think about Science? – B&D

In this episode, Bart and I talk about Wissenschaftsbarometer or “science barometer”. This annual survey in Germany and Switzerland is about the public’s trust in science and scientists. Afterward, we talk about a similar survey in the USA, published by the Pew Foundation a few months earlier. For each survey, we picked a couple of questions and interpret the answers. 

As a side note: The extended version of this episode has two parts. Each one is more than an hour long. You can access both parts by becoming a supporter on Patreon. In the past, we asked for a minimum pledge of $5.99 per month for this perk. But now, any pledge will grant you access!

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

39 From Cosy(?) Academia to Harsh(?) Industry! – with John Stowers

Life as an Early Career Researcher is rather uncertain. The conditions for most postdocs aren’t really great and the availability of professorships isn’t increasing at the same rate as the number of PhDs entering the academic career path – we talk about this, regularly.

So it makes sense to seriously consider other career options, and we do so every now and then, too.

For this episode, I talk to Dr. John Stowers, engineer, neuroscientist, and founder of “LoopBio”, about the transition from postdoc to technology business founder!

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

SfProcur curator May 7 – 12: Filipa M. Ferreira – @science_glamour

Filipa M. Ferreira, MSc, is a PhD candidate in neuroimmunology in Zurich, Switzerland. She studies the onset and development of multiple sclerosis (MS). Filipa is also involved with the
Young Scientist Network (LSZYSN) of Life Science Zurich, a student organization that brings together life science companies and early career scientists.

Filipa informs early career scientists about the jobs they can find outside academia, about the skills they need to develop, and about opportunities for entrepreneurship during and after the PhD.

In her week at @SfPRocur, Filipa wants to make clear that there’s no such thing as an ‘alternative’ career in science. “A conscious decision to stay in academia is as brave as the decision to leave it.”

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about Susan Leemburg

Susan received her PhD in neuroscience in 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2017 and is currently looking for the next adventure.

25 SciComm: Pint of Science – with Elodie Chabrol

In May will be the next Pint of Science event!

Pint of Science is an annual festival that was founded by Michael Motskin and Praveen Paul. Every May scientists present their research to a public audience in a pub or a bar. It started in the UK in 2014, and it’s now spread throughout the world, with official events in 24 countries. In 2018, 120 000 people visited Pint of Science events. The events are planned by local teams, which make up the 3000 volunteers.

In this episode I spoke with Pint of Science organizer Elodie Chabrol, a former neuroscience researcher, who is now a full-time science communicator.

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

SfProcur curator April 9 – 14: Pilar Vesga – @CaterPilarVesga

Pilar Vesga, MSc, is a PhD candidate in the plant pathology group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she studies how some bacteria could be used to combat harmful insects and plant diseases. Her work helps lay the groundwork for better pest management, which could eventually help solve the world’s food crisis.

In her week at @SfProcur, Pilar will discuss biological pest control, the food crisis, the role GMOs can play in solving it, and what the alternatives are. As a microbiologist and general bacteria enthusiast, she will also share some of her favorite curious microbes.

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about Susan Leemburg

Susan received her PhD in neuroscience in 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2017 and is currently looking for the next adventure.

SfProcur curator April 2 – 7: Hillary Stires – @HillStirSci

If we constantly have to talk to people about why fake science is wrong […], we will not be able to move biomedical research forward.

Dr. Hillary Stires is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). She is currently transitioning from cancer research to science policy work.

Hillary is particularly passionate about including patient advocates in the dialogue for the next frontiers of cancer research. She encourages other scientists to consider the patients’ concerns when designing experiments, and hopes to improve patient-researcher relationships by raising awareness in researchers.

During her curation on @sfprocur, Hillary will talk about the scientists’ responsibility to communicate their science with broad audiences. Not only are many researchers and institutes in biomedical sciences funded by the public, there is a lot of misinformation by non-scientists that is slowing biomedical progress.

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

20 B&D: 1st Anniversary! Podcasts, and Trusting Scientists

This episode of Bart and Dennis Talk is actually our first anniversary episode! While Science for Progress was founded in July 2017, the podcast went online on February 20th 2018!

Announcement

At the beginning of the episode I announce that I will be on the Twitter “rotating curation account” @RecovingAcad, which belongs to the Recovering Academic Podcast. We had a crossover episode with them, last November. I will be tweeting about leaving academia and transitioning into industry from February 25th to March 2nd.

On March 3rd I will do a live video AMA on the account @theaddictivebrain on Instagram. Addictive Brain is a science communication project that was initiated by Chinmaya Sadangi, who was curator on our twitter rotating curation account @sfprocur. My AMA on Instagram starts at 3 p.m. UTC and will take about an hour.

Anniversary!

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

19 Insecurity and Uncertainties for Early Career Academics – with Maria Pinto

Academics are Spoiled. Right?

The stereotype of academics is that they live a well protected life in the ivory tower. But this is not the case for most of them. Maria Pinto from Portugal is a PhD student in marine microbiology in Austria. With the final stages of her work approaching, Maria is beginning to think about the future.

Forgoing Salaries, Benefits, and Life Planning Security in your Late 20s to 40s.

We talk about the many uncertainties in academia, particularly for early career researchers. In general the salaries are not good, but in poorer countries, where the salaries are particularly low and may not even include social security, there is also an expectation of students to pay field work trips themselves. In general, traveling in order to present your work at conferences is important to researchers and their careers, but for many, this is not affordable.

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about Dennis Eckmeier

Dennis founded Science for Progress. He received a PhD in neuroscience in 2010 in Germany. Until 2018 he worked as a postdoc in the USA, and Portugal. In 2017 he co-organized the March for Science in Lisbon, Portugal. Dennis is currently a freelancer.

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