Hearing from past trainees about their science communication success is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work at language connectED. Naturally, we were both excited and gratified to hear that Eleonora Stronati, PhD, a participant in our Fall 2022 Strategically Speaking course offered in partnership with the Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs at Penn, was awarded first place for her poster presentation entitled “Schizophrenia in the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is associated with lysosomal and mitophagy dysfunction in IPS-derived neurons” at CHOP’s Research Poster Day and Science Symposium held May 2-3, 2023.
We asked Eleonora, a postdoctoral fellow at the Anderson Lab in the Department of Child Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at CHOP, what contributed to her success in the symposium. She told us she drew in part on lessons from Strategically Speaking. "During the course, I appreciated the explanation of how to express complex ideas in a simple way, specifically targeting the audience. This helped me clearly communicate the hypothesis of my research." She further explained how scientists visiting her poster might be interested in the main topic but might not be familiar with the specific pathology or mechanisms she was describing. We often see audience awareness develop among participants in our Strategically Speaking course as they attempt to describe visual aids or research methods that are easily accessible to colleagues in their own line of research but unclear or unfamiliar to researchers working in other areas. The realization that shared knowledge cannot be assumed even when talking to other biomedical postdocs is eye-opening and immediately actionable.
Congratulations, Eleonora!