Information for Speakers
We are happy you agreed to visit NSCL and are very much looking forward to your seminar. Below is some information concerning the audience for and the purpose of the NSCL nuclear seminar that might be helpful:
- The time limit is 50 minnutes. The seminar starts at 4:10 pm, so please end at 5:00 pm sharp.
- The purpose of the nuclear seminar is to communicate cutting-edge research to a broad audience with interest and some (in some cases limited) background in nuclear science.
The audience will be very diverse - we have many experimental and theoretical research groups that work on a wide range of very different topics, plus accelerator physicists and astrophysicists. Please direct your talk at the non-experts on the specific sub-field presented.
There also will be many graduate students. It would be great if the talk would be - at least in large parts - accessible to graduate students.
A common misconception is that the audience is knowledgeable of research areas the NSCL is well known for. Given the diversity of the laboratory, this is not the case. There is no danger at all to "carry coal to Newcastle".
- Less is often more. A talk from which the audience remembers one interesting piece of science has already accomplished a lot. We recommend in particular to avoid switching topics towards the end of the talk. There is no need to cover an area in a comprehensive way - again the majority of the audience members will not be experts but just want to learn something interesting. Ending a few minutes early so there is more time for questions is perfectly fine and even might be more effective!
- Equations on Power Point slides are difficult to digest. As a rule of thumb, it takes as much time as it would to write the equation on a blackboard to fully communicate it to the majority of the audience.
