Science and outreach
Science-focused activities
As students, we regularly invite speakers over to TSL to give talks. As part of their visits, we usually organize a student colloquium where we all discuss the speaker’s work with them and ask them any questions we may have. We are also given the opportunity to talk about our work with them in one-on-one meetings, which is super useful as the speakers tend to be established group leaders and tend to have amazing feedback! At the end of their visits, we usually go for a nice dinner in town with the speaker and a group of students, which is also a fantastic opportunity for networking.
Open science
TSL students and scientists have started hosting PrePrint Pizza Parties as an opportunity for PhD students, M.Sc. Students and PreDocs to mingle and learn from Postdocs in a relaxed environment.
The TSL Preprint Club members discuss novel science in a low-pressure setting and develop critical thinking and reviewing skills. It’s also an activity that brings the community together, while promoting open science outside of TSL through our twitter threads and publicly shared reviews.
Outreach activities
We are especially committed to outreach activities in our local community to inspire the next generation of scientists and speak with the public about our work at TSL. A key annual event in our outreach calendar is The Norwich Science Festival. This event helps young people of all ages engage with the region’s scientific research through a week of fun and interactive sessions. TSL students run a stall with activities that teach the public about the importance of plant health and how plants defend themselves against disease-causing microbes.
We have a page dedicated to all the scicomm activities happening at TSL that students are always encouraged to participate in.