1. Academic Scientists at Work
Dos and Don’ts of the Job Talk
Academic Scientists at Work

2. Academic Scientists at Work
Just introduced
Thank you to the Search committee, chair, colleague or whoever invited you to come to meet the faculty
Enjoyed meeting everyone, yada yada
Optional
Short anecdotal story about the trip or a joke about your research. If you are not funny, just move on to the next slide
Academic Scientists at Work

3. Objectives of this slide show
Walk you through an organization structure for a talk
Illustrate some with font selections that are clear
Illustrate color combinations that work, and those that Don’t
Academic Scientists at Work

4. Academic Scientists at Work
Job Talk Introduction
General overview of problem
No undefined JARGON
Keep it simple
Why is the problem important?
What is not known?
What problem will you be addressing that will help solve the above problem?
Background information needed to understand project
Academic Scientists at Work

5. Objectives for Today’s Talk
List of conclusions of main research aims. OR
Questions leading to research aims
Future Plans
Academic Scientists at Work

6. Academic Scientists at Work
Results Part I
Intro to question to be answered (Maybe from list)
Methodology used
Experiment set up
Results and Controls
Interpretation, Conclusions…
Next lead in question…
Academic Scientists at Work

7. Academic Scientists at Work
Results part 2
Repeat motif as in part 1
Academic Scientists at Work

8. Optional Summary of Section
If you have slightly disjointed results sections, sometimes it is advantageous to have a summary section along the way
Keep it short as you have already made the conclusions
Be prepared to take questions here, but it is best to move the talk along and not invite questions as it may derail your ability to finish the talk on time
Academic Scientists at Work

9. Academic Scientists at Work
Future Work
This can be done in several ways.
The best is a list of aims
Aim 1: Investigate yada, yada, yada
Aim 2: Determine if yada interacts with aday
Etc…
Or, Organize as questions or hypotheses
Academic Scientists at Work

10. Academic Scientists at Work
Credit
Advisor
Others who did some work
Those who supplied reagents
Academic Scientists at Work

11. Academic Scientists at Work
Some Fonts to consider
Sans serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica are very clean looking. These two are very similar and it is hard to tell them apart (note the a). Many journals like their figures to be in these fonts. So use these for your figures.
Comic Sans is very popular and gives the impression that the slides are personal - one of my favorites. Comic Sans looks horrible in figures and should be used only for titles and text slides.
Times / Times Roman is very tight but is not as clean on slides.
Academic Scientists at Work

12. Academic Scientists at Work
Size of letters
Bigger is better (32)
But it doesn’t have to be too big
View your slides from the back of a regular conference room
This is 28 Arial
This is 24 Arial
This is 18 Arial and is close to the limit that can be read. Also, if you use this size in your text, you may already have too much on the slide.
Figures may have smaller characters but if the numbers are important they should be large enough to see. 12 point is clear but may be difficult to read. Remember clean & clear.
Academic Scientists at Work

13. Good color combinations 1
Black & White
Clear & Clean
Effective but Boring
A white background allows you to use many colors, but they have to be dark to project well.
Bright Blues, Reds, and Orange are visible but are not as appealing as others
Darkening the colors helps: Dark Blue, Dark Red, Maroon,Teal, or Brown’s stand out nicely
Yellows, Pinks, light blues, and greens don’t work well
Academic Scientists at Work

14. Colors that do not work on Blue Backgrounds
Do not choose Black
Do not choose Red - you can see it on your screen but not in the room
This blue works on the computer but not in the room
Greens don’t work that well either and are just ugly.
The major problem is that these colors do not offer the appropriate level of contrast
Academic Scientists at Work

15. Colors that do not work on a Black background
Blue on Black is tough to see
Red - you can see it on your screen but not in the room
The major problem is that these colors do not offer the appropriate contrast when projected because of the ambient light and the contrast capacity of the projector
This may now seem obvious, but count the number of slides at the next meeting that use red on blue or black. OK, enough already!
Browns almost work, but need to be lighter
Academic Scientists at Work

16. Colors that work on Blue Backgrounds
Whites over the best contrast here.
Yellow will also work. If you can pale it down a bit, its better.
Very Light Blue will also work.
Orange may work but needs to be light.
Academic Scientists at Work

17. Colors that work on Black Backgrounds
Whites over the best contrast here.
Yellow will also work. If you can pale it down a bit, its better.
Very Light Blue will also work.
Orange may work but needs to be light.
If in doubt, you may try to Bold the lettering to help it stand out.
Academic Scientists at Work

18. Presenting super colorful figures — fluorescent images, etc.
Most fluorescent images need to be shown in a completely dark room to see the details.
This means that you can’t have white surrounding the image or it will make it difficult for your eyes to see.
So the slide background must be black (preferred) or blue.
Alyssa Bushey-Long
Academic Scientists at Work

19. Presenting super colorful figures — fluorescent images, etc.
Most fluorescent images need to be shown in a completely dark room to see the details.
This means that you can’t have white surrounding the image or it will make it difficult for your eyes to see.
So the slide background must be black (preferred) or blue.
The background also makes the slide blend in very nicely here.
Alyssa Bushey-Long
Academic Scientists at Work

20. Putting graphs on a dark background
Keep the colors light as in the top panel
Some like to put a white background around the figure to help it out.
Note thin lines on bottom graph - these should be thicker.
Academic Scientists at Work