A Sharing Letter from Astrid Irwanto

I would just like to share with you some of my experiences during the first overseas international conference I’ve ever attended, the Human Genome Meeting (HGM) 2012 in Sydney, Australia. I’m very fortunate that my scholarship (Singapore International Graduate Award, SINGA) provides conference allowance for up to three overseas and two local conferences throughout my PhD study. Now in my third year, it’s time to use this opportunity to start building network and get a heads up on the most recent breakthrough directly from the mouth of the ‘giants’ in my research field.

Conference support from my scholarship is not exactly a “free gift”. In order for us to qualify for the reimbursement, we have to present our work either in poster or paper form (oral presentation). First thing is to submit an abstract of our work to the committee (the deadline is usually 4-6 months before the conference). They will inform us whether our abstract is accepted or rejected within one or two months before the actual conference date.

My abstract was accepted for a poster presentation. Interestingly, the format of the poster presentation at HGM 2012 wasn’t like the normal printed poster mounted on boards, but it was a digital format where one could submit a softcopy of 6 power point slides to be displayed on 46-inch touch-screens throughout the conference. This easy format allowed us to be most creative with our posters. We can even display animated graphs or videos in our presentation. With the advancement of technology, these posters were available on our fingertips. No one had to actually stand by their poster. We could browse the content of all posters from our phone or laptop as free WiFi was available at the conference venue. Anyone could comment or ask questions and arrange a meeting with the author to know more about their work.

To my surprise, my poster was nominated for the poster award among 386 other accepted posters. Shortlisted candidates of around 20 posters were invited for an oral presentation in front of the committee. Given three minutes for this presentation, we were to craft our speech in a clear, concise and precise manner. I tried my best to deliver key messages from my work and answer questions from the juries. Finally, on the last day of the conference, I was very happy to find out that I won third prize for this award after competing with other excellent scientists including one from University of Pennsylvania, USA, grabbing first prize and from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia grabbing second prize. The prize includes an award certificate and 100 AUD from Springer.

The Human Genome Meeting 2012 was truly an enriching experience for me. Listening to the talks directly from people you’ve always admired on paper was very inspiring. Some of them even have the same problem with me and seeing how they try to solve it brought me hope. You will also be exposed to different presentation styles. Having to listen to what others are doing actually motivates yourself and triggers back the curiosity that might have been missing from yourself due to routine research and sometimes your frustrating PhD life =P. Besides that, I also made friends with other scientists whose paper were on the headlines of the top journals. It’s great to share ideas with them and if both of you happen to be interested in the same topic, there’s always opportunity to collaborate. If we make use of the many networking sessions available during the conference, who knows it might help you land a job position in your dream country too!

For my fellow FTb friends who are doing their graduate studies, try as much as you can to attend seminars and scientific conferences both local and international ones. If funding is a constraint, then you can try to be a student volunteer. In this way you can sneak inside the talks once your job is done. Keep up your spirit and work hard! Wishing you success in your study and career and remember that small little bits of achievement throughout your study will be a stepping stone for your future endeavors.  Good luck!