Often, you will hear that a specific field or conference is a tight community, with welcoming individuals. This was especially true for my first time at the conference of the Behavior Genetics Association. Not only were my colleague Lianyun Huang and I, welcomed at the first reception by people from the executive committee, we had a wonderful time speaking to many of the attendees during the whole conference.
This welcoming atmosphere extended itself to the Friday afternoon, when I was given the opportunity to present my work in an 8-minute lightning talk. The other presenters in this session were very supportive and complementary towards each other and acknowledged that the time-frame for this presentation was tight.
If I dare say so myself, my talk was a success. I was able to give my full talk within the allotted time and discuss all the points I had planned. Not only that, in later networking sessions, like the poster sessions and closing banquet, people went out of their way to commend me on the talk, and ask me questions. My thanks go out to everyone who stopped by and had insightfull questions and remarks!
One specific scientific session stood out to me, on Saturday afternoon. They behaviors under discussion: musical ability, rythmic ability, and experiencing music. From emotional regulation to talent, this phenotype can be very interesting to understand cognition and environmental effects on development. And all though sample sizes are still growing, some promising results really peaked my interest.
To close off this amazing inclusive event, during the banquet in a most Harry Potter-esque Great Hall, the presidential adress of Valerie Knopik was not only a very true comment on the importance of metoring, her notes on friendship and support, on circumstance, chance and persistence were greatly inspiring. Hoping one day, I too can inspire fellow researchers to strive for proper mentorship and education.
I cannot repeat enough, my thanks to the executive committee for allowing me to present, and attend this wonderful edition of the BGA conference, and I look forward to see everyone again in the future!
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog, thank you! I want to take this chance to tell you I am looking for new opportunities starting January 2025. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you know of anything!
ps. find my presentation slides under publications
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