Tips for Creating and Presenting a Scientific Poster

Joshua Hall received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from UNC Chapel Hill and was a SPIRE (IRACDA) postdoctoral fellow, also at UNC, where he was able to combine his interests in research and teaching. He is currently Director of Graduate Admissions for UNC School of Medicine and Director of UNC PREP, a program that equips and empowers individuals from under-represented groups to transition into and excel in biomedical PhD programs. For the past nine years, he led North Carolina DNA Day, an annual event that sends over 150 scientists to high school classrooms across North Carolina. Josh is passionate about helping science trainees succeed and is actively involved in research related to equity and inclusion in science training programs and understanding factors that contribute to graduate student success. He has recently co-authored four peer-reviewed publications on these topics including a study indicating the GRE was particularly ineffective at selecting students who succeed in biomedical PhD programs. Based on these findings, Josh has been a vocal advocate for eliminating the GRE as a selection criterion for biomedical graduate programs (#GRExit). In addition, he is the creator and co-host of the Hello PhD podcast that explores the human side of science and life in the lab!

Daniel Arneman, PhD decided to test the boundaries of the 'alternative career.' After completing his graduate work in Molecular Physiology at UNC Chapel Hill, he left the lab to compile the University's first comprehensive Carbon Inventory and Climate Action Plan. He then joined smart-meter startup PlotWatt where he served as VP of Energy Analytics until it was acquired by American Efficient in 2018.

Mike Morrison is a former User Experience (UX) designer who quit his tech career to become a PhD student in Work Psychology. He’s says he’s trying to do three things in his career: 1) Bring User Experience design principles to science, to help disseminate knowledge faster and more efficiently 2) Understand the factors that make work meaningful (or meaningless). 3) Understand the psychological differences between so-called ‘realists’ and ‘dreamers’. He recently released a video introducing a new way to design scientific research posters — which every field in science uses and which are notorious for their bad design. His video went viral, and now scientists across every field in science are trying out his new design — and having more fun sharing their research with other scientists.