Thread by @phylogenomics

Posted slides from my talk for the @ucdavis "2019 ADVANCE Scholar Award Symposium" - talk was about #microbiomes #manels and the people who have inspired me to work on #STEMDiversity slideshare.net/phylogenomics/… #ucdavis #STEMDiversity 1/n

Also made a Wakelet of some of the Tweets from the Symposium - see wakelet.com/wake/2698e152-… #ucdavis #STEMDiversity 2/n

I thought I had recorded my talk using @camtasia but the audio part seems to have failed so I am going to go through my talk here by annotating some of my slides #ucdavis #STEMDiversity 3/n

@Camtasia For the Award symposium they asked me if I could talk about both my research and STEM diversity activities and I spent a while trying to figure out how to weave them together 4/n

So - I started off my talk discussing my research focus on #microbiomes and how everything is covered in microbes but that most of these microbes (other than the ones with major negative or positive effects) have largely been ignored 5/n

And then I discussed how the #microbiome topic has become quite the rage in the last 10+ years 6/n

I discussed some reasons why I think #microbiomes have become so hot 7/n

And some more reasons why I think #microbiomes have become so hot 8/n

And then I discussed some of the reasons work on #microbiomes is challenging 9/n

And another reason why work on #microbiomes is challenging 10/n

And then I discussed how my lab has focused primarily on one way to study #microbiomes - via DNA sequencing 11/n

And then I said, basically, we have worked on all sorts of #microbe and #microbiome topics in my lab and that the most important part of my lab has been the people and how amazing the people have been in my lab 12/n

And then I said, I have also been very interested in helping others work on #microbiomes and discussed our new initiative at #UCDavis in this area - the UC Davis Microbiome Special Research Program @UCDMicrobiome 13/n

@UCDMicrobiome I then turned to how I worry a great deal about how microbiome science is perceived and presented and how there is both pervasive germophobia (kill all microbes) and microbiomania (all microbes are good for you) 14/n

@UCDMicrobiome And then I discussed how outreach and public engagement can help combat these problems with misrepresentation of the science of microbiomes and can also get people engaged in science generally 15/n

@UCDMicrobiome And then I gave an example of outreach - how I was live blogging / posting about a conference I was attending - the Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes meeting and how it was at this event that my perspective #STEMDiversity was transformed 16/n

@UCDMicrobiome I mentioned how I decided to skip some talks because I just did not have the patience to sit through too many in a row and I went outside and there was a woman sitting on the lawn with a small child 17/n

I went over to her and asked, thinking I was being real funny, if she was skipping the talks too and she said "no - I am hired as a nanny to take care of this kid for a graduate student so that she can attend the talks" 18/n

And pretty much instantaneously I both felt a bit lame (for skipping the talk) & also very privileged as I was free to do anything here but there was a grad student who could not just go in & out of talks but had to worry about taking care of her infant at the same time 19/n

And even more important to me was that the nanny then told me that University of Wisconsin had a program to provide funds for child care for students who had kids and who wanted to attend conferences 20/n

This was extra eye opening because not only was there a challenge people faced (that I had been blind to) but that there was a possible solution to this problem that someone had come up with and found money for 21/n

I then found out that this program was created in part (or maybe in whole) by one of the science heroes Jo Handelsman @jo44atWID so I blogged about this and mentioned how it transformed me to trying to think about the challenges others face in STEM areas 22/n

@jo44atWID I also mentioned how this was a bit awkward since I should have known better as my mother, Laura Eisen, a chemistry prof (who was at the award event) was a leader in "Women in Science" activities for 30+ years but that I had not really listened carefully 23/n

@jo44atWID And that I pretty much came home from that Lake Arrowhead meeting committed to doing something about diversity in STEM - I then spent the rest of my talk discussing some "Lessons Learned" from my experiences in working on #STEMDiversity 24/n

@jo44atWID Lesson 1: Institutions Can Change

As evidenced by the UC Davis ADVANCE program (and I thanked some of the people who I worked with on this for letting me be involved in this great program) 25/n

@jo44atWID Yes, there is more work to be done at @ucdavis but I am proud to be at an institutions where so many people are committed to issues relating to #STEMDiversity and eliminating problems from explicit and implicit bias 26/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Lesson 2: Public Representation Matters

I mentioned some of my efforts on this topic & then discussed some of the heroic efforts by others out there around the world (I focused on social media a bit since this was the subtitle of my talk which I forgot to mention above) 27/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Again, there is more work to be done but there are so many great people out there pushing for improvements in public representation in #STEM fields and I gave some examples of efforts that inspire me here (not meant to be comprehensive) 28/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Lesson 3: Sexual Harassment and Assault is pervasive and we must keep fighting it

Not of course a cheerful topic but a critically important one to work on and I gave examples of some of the people who have done heroic work on the topic here. 29/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Lesson 4: Listen to an Amplify the Voices of Others

Just so many incredible people out there on social media tackling important issues relating to diversity in STEM and we need to recognize them, support them, and amplify them. I have some examples of key voices for me here.

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Lesson 5: @ucdavis Rules

Beyond the Advance project I am deeply impressed and inspired by the people at UC Davis working on issues relating to diversity in STEM (and other disciplines). I gave some examples of some people who have inspired me here.

@jo44atWID @ucdavis Other Lessons:

6: Tech industry needs to change.
7: I focused on women in STEM here but so many other important aspects to STEM diversity.
8: Use your privilege
9: Don't kick down
10: Apologize when wrong

32/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis OK - then I wanted to bring things back to the beginning of the talk - hidden things right in front of our eyes. And I wanted to talk about my family. And I found the perfect example ... 33/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis I discussed the story of Lokiarchaea and how there was this hidden novel branch in the tree of life, a likely sister group to Eukaryotes, that was only recently discovered using metagenomics (I note - a term coined by @jo44atWID who plays a key role in this whole thread) 34/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis And how, after the Lokiarchaea were discovered researchers found some other related groups and named these after other Gods in the Asgard / Norse mythology 35/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis I then discussed how I came home from a meeting and told my daughter (who was then about 10) about these cool microbes named after Marvel characters she immediately said something akin to "That's lame - Why are none named after goddesses"? 36/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis So I started complaining on her behalf to some of the researchers behind this work 37/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis And they responded - and promised the next group would be named after Freya, although in the end the next one was named after Hela (but still good) 38/n

@jo44atWID @ucdavis So there you go - even in the hidden world of microbes, representation matters ... and then I wrapped up my talk by thanking my lab again 39/n

@ucdavis Unroll this please @threadreaderapp