Multilingual Seminars – Genes to Genomes

The Spanish Multilingual Seminar: Challenges of communicating science as Spanish speakers

Guest Author — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 21:32:53 +0000

Carla Bautista Rodriguez is a PhD candidate in evolutionary biology at Laval University (Canada) and a member of the Genetics Society of America. She is also passionate about outreach and scientific communication. She is an active member of various American and Spanish societies that are dedicated to bringing science to the general public.

The GSA multilingual seminar in Spanish, titled “Challenges of Doing and Communicating Science as Spanish Speakers,” was held on September 3, 2021. As revealed by the participant survey conducted during registration, the participants’ origins were very diverse, including many non-Spanish-speaking countries, which indicated the active participation of professionals working in their non-native tongue. Among the outstanding areas of expertise of the participants were pharmaceuticals, agriculture, government jobs, education, and research. This wide range of topics ensured a very fruitful seminar.

The need to meet

This survey revealed shocking perspectives on Spanish speakers in the field of science. While 50 percent of respondents claimed to have an advanced level of English, more than 75 percent admitted to feeling afraid or ashamed when expressing themselves in their professional field. Despite these concerns, more than 80 percent of participants reported making presentations in other languages, and more than 50 percent reported staying abroad. Most respondents also expressed interest in finding a job in countries where their mother tongue is not spoken.

Our panelists

The Spanish seminar was led by 3 incredible panelists with very diverse and interesting profiles. With a more industry-oriented profile, Roberto Carballido is a talent scout and defender of diversity who works for Eli Lilly and Company. A professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Javier Blanco is a renowned researcher in the fields of biochemistry and pharmaceutical sciences. And finally, with a biochemical background, Attabey Rodríguez Benítez is as an important science popularizer and editor of SciShow, a YouTube channel.

Challenges as Spanish speakers

We should normalize the experience of not being understood when we arrive in a new country. Consistency and practice are key. After years of dedication to learning a language, feeling disappointed when you do not achieve fluency in practice is normal. In addition, we have to consider the cultural shock of experiencing all these feelings alone, without the support of family and friends. Furthermore, researchers face constant pressure due to the highly competitive and demanding research environment. Therefore, finding a secure network where you feel comfortable is crucial.

Practical strategies for overcoming the English language barrier

As part of the seminar, we collected great tips from our panelists on speaking and interacting in English:

Outreach is a good way to learn English because you have to explain difficult concepts in an easy way.
If you feel that the language barrier is endless in the first instances of your scientific journey, look for other ways to communicate. Your skills can be displayed in many ways: scripts, graphs, techniques, new methods, etc.
Find a community where you feel safe. The scientific community is likely multicultural in any country. You will interact with many people who are probably going through the same difficulties as you.
Because of #3, native English scientists are used to many different accents, errors, vocabulary, etc. Accept that your accent is not native but still perfect. Your accent is what it is, and it’s nice because it’s a mixture of your native culture and your new culture. Enjoy that distinction! Do not be afraid! Stop looking for perfection. The important thing is to communicate effectively.
If you feel that someone does not understand you, ask: have you understood me? Likewise, when you do not understand, ask your interlocutor to repeat and speak more slowly.
There are many people who want to help, but they will not help you if you do not raise your hand. They won’t read your mind. Ask For Help. You will be surprised by how they help you.
Use tools that make your day-to-day life easier—for example, Grammarly and Wordtune, which are web browser extensions that help correct your texts. (I’m currently using them as I write!)

Why should we continue speaking in Spanish about science?

Transmitting and communicating what we do in our native language is important. English-speaking children are more likely to become passionate about science because they have been exposed to more scientific content in English, the most used scientific language. We, therefore, have to end this bias! We need more resources in Spanish to create scientific interest among young Spanish speakers. The only ones who can do it are scientific Spanish speakers because they can translate science. Furthermore, during the pandemic, there was a growing need and demand from the general population for tools that would allow them to understand what was happening. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and inform the public about our findings.

Model your professional career from now on

Finally, we had a conversation more oriented to each participant’s area of expertise, where they shared valuable advice and resources (Table 1). We hope you find all of this information useful, and we especially hope to see you at future GSA seminars! (You can rewatch the webinar here.)

Table 1. Advice and Resources Oriented to Each Area: Outreach, Industry, and Academy.

Notes:

Early Career Leadership Spotlight: Jadson C. Santos (Jall)

Early Career Scientist Committees — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 17:11:00 +0000

Jadson C. Santos (Jall)

Career Development Subcommittee

University of São Paulo

Research Interest

I have carried out research in various scientific areas—among them, human genetics, bioinformatics, structural biology of proteins, and molecular immunology. I’ve always been passionate about science, but the molecular world sparked my imagination and attracted me more than any other area.

Currently, as a third-year PhD student in genetics, I integrate computational and experimental methodologies to understand the impact of pathogenic mutations on the 3D structure of proteins important to the immune system. In parallel, as part of my MBA in project management, I conducted research on leadership and working in scientific teams to understand the main interpersonal challenges that those teams face in scientific projects.

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?

As a scientist, my main interests are in transdisciplinary research, which integrates different areas of knowledge in the search for innovations and discoveries that can solve complex world challenges, such as biodiversity loss, species extinction, the climate crisis, education, water scarcity, and global health.

To this end, I find myself applying the transferable skills I’ve learned during my scientific journey—combined with the management and leadership skills I’ve gained over the past four years—to connect knowledge and people with a common purpose. More specifically, I’m interested in working in management positions of international scientific societies to increase the visibility of science and its social impact, as well as catalyze scientists’ potential to innovate and discover “new worlds” through well-designed and well-executed projects.

Additionally, I am deeply interested in work that involves the career development of scientists and early career professionals. Therefore, since 2020, I have been mentoring undergraduate and graduate students on skills and career development in my country. This activity is a service of great social value and brings me immense satisfaction in knowing that I am directly contributing to the lives and careers of other scientists along my journey.

As a project consultant and trainer in project management, leadership, and communication, I aim to develop professional activities for scientists and research groups around the world. I am deeply fascinated by the academic/scientific environment. In my career vision, I will have the opportunity to visit different research groups and universities around the world, witnessing firsthand the places where knowledge arises while contributing to this process throughout my career. In short, I see myself as a scientist working to create the project, management, and leadership structures that can catalyze the results of scientists and generate impact beyond universities and research institutes. Science plays a central role in the development of the world and being involved in this development inspires me to do my best daily.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?

The collaborative nature of my PhD research made it clear to me that we need to continuously improve our interpersonal and intercultural skills. In most scientific and technical fields, more than 90 percent of research project studies and publications are collaborative, with collaboration skills being a prerequisite for scientists. Also, the increasing internationalization of scientific research makes such skills crucial in this environment.

In recent years, I’ve focused on training that can enhance my management and leadership skills to make a solid contribution to science by helping scientists strengthen their collaborations. This investment in learning outside academia was crucial to my understanding of the complexity of the challenges we face not only as scientists but also as individuals with different cultures, values, and life/career goals.

My broader career goal is to contribute to the creation of a more collaborative and productive scientific culture. Such a challenge requires a broad integration between science and other areas of knowledge. Likewise, it is essential to understand the dynamics of research teams and groups—an understanding that is facilitated when we live in this scientific environment. For this reason, my scientific journey forms the basis of my career, as it allows me to deeply understand the day-to-day challenges that scientists face in their research. I am also developing my collaborative knowledge and skills by writing a newsletter on leadership and collaboration in the research environment (with 8,000 subscribers, mostly graduate students and postdocs) and managing a community of more than 900 scientists and professionals interested in collaboration in life sciences. Being part of GSA’s Early Career Leadership Program is therefore a great opportunity for fostering a collaborative environment and improving my skills in this area.

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish?

Before officially joining the program, I was already collaborating with GSA. In 2021, I was an organizer and moderator of the Portuguese Multilingual Seminar Series, along with two other Brazilian partners. At another scientific event, I hosted a virtual room for Portuguese-speaking scientists to integrate them into the event via their native language, thereby strengthening networking.

As co-chair of the Career Development Subcommittee, I look forward to continuing to learn from my partners inside and outside the subcommittee. Additionally, I intend to bring to our projects a vision from beyond academia that improves existing processes to better support the professional development of the scientific community.

The events that I have already organized together with the subcommittee members have proven relevant to the scientific community, especially early career scientists. I often receive positive feedback from my professional connections, informing me how crucial our content was to their lives and careers. This positive impact on the community motivates me to continue improving my ability to create value through my activities at GSA.

In the long term, I intend to broaden my experience in management and leadership in a multicultural environment and establish long-lasting collaborations with my Early Career Leadership Program partners. These long-term collaborations will be essential, allowing me to continue learning, engaging with the GSA community, and generating value for early career scientists and society.

Previous leadership experience

Founder and Mentor for Career Development, SSK Mentoring, 2020 – Present
Community Manager, Leadership and Collaboration in Science (Virtual Community), 2021 – Present
Advisor, Mendeley Community, 2020 – 2021
Tutor, theVirtual University of São Paulo, 2019 – 2020
Expert Volunteer, Science Buddies Ask an Expert Program, 2018 – 2019

You can contact Jadson C. Santos (Jall) on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter. You can find his newsletter on LinkedIn here.

Doing science as a non-native English speaker: Important takeaways from the first Portuguese Multilingual Seminar

Guest Author — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 13:39:00 +0000

Guest post by J. Humberto Cunha, Danielle F. Mello, and Jadson Carlos dos Santos.

The Genetics Society of America, Portuguese Multilingual Seminar took place on November 16, 2021, and was attended by four guest panelists and three organizers with diverse scientific backgrounds, from different regions of the world. The panel was designed to represent the diversity of the Brazilian scientific population, considering gender, region of origin, area of expertise, and ethnicity.

The event was held entirely in Portuguese and was focused on the central theme of scientific communication in English for non-native speakers. It highlighted the importance of bringing together diverse experiences and views to discuss the challenges and opportunities in building an international scientific career. Here are some of the insights and tips the panelists shared with their audience:

Challenges for Portuguese-speaking scientists

During the seminar, guests shared the challenges of adapting to a new language, country, and way of communicating science. Despite the diversity of origins and training, the panelists had several points in common. These included the role language plays as one is adapting to a new country, and the social issues surrounding the study of English.

Among the points addressed, the following stand out:

English language and culture are not the same throughout the world

Although English is considered the “language of science,” certain variations, such as those in American and British English, can make scientific understanding difficult. Grammatical dissimilarities for example, can sometimes make writing and understanding scientific articles more difficult.

But the biggest challenge highlighted by the panelists involved spoken English and cultural differences.

The English spoken in different regions of the world can be considerably different. This diversity in accents, everyday expressions, and scientific jargon is an additional challenge for learners looking to master the language and actively participate in scientific discussions.

Additionally, being in a region of the globe with an entirely different history and traditions can add an extra level of challenges for communicating science. Depending on what region or community the scientist is now in, science may take place in a very different environment than what they were previously used to. It may be more formal or strict, increasing language barriers and posing an extra weight on the foreign scientist to bear. Or, as is often the case, science may take place in a more friendly and welcoming environment, allowing the scientist to feel comfortable and encouraged to overcome any language or cultural barrier.

Differences in basic education aggravate inclusion in science

In Brazil, the education system introduces students to English very early in their schooling. However, the intensity and quality of English exposure is far from homogeneous, depending on the nation’s region and its level of development. This factor, combined with socio-racial issues, can make learning a new language unattainable for future scientists and aggravate diversity, inclusion, and equity in science.

Even scientists struggle with scientific jargons

Each scientific area has specific technical terms or jargon used not only in scientific publications but also as a part of a scientist’s everyday life. The proper use of this kind of vocabulary can be particularly challenging for non-native speakers and this challenge can be even greater when they have a different background or are starting in another scientific area.

Unexpectedly, studying or practicing science in a foreign country also presents challenges when the scientist shares science in their native language, in our case, Portuguese. This is because scientists sometimes learn different technical terms for the first time in English and are either unaware of their Portuguese translation, or often these terms have never been translated. As highlighted during our seminar, making an effort to have these terms translated is important to ensure inclusion in science.

By aiming for perfect English, Brazilians increase their socialization barriers in the new country

Another factor that posed a significant challenge, according to the panelists, was difficulty socializing in an English-speaking country. In addition to the role that cultural environment plays in facilitating or aggravating socialization, a scientist’s own insecurity about communicating properly in the foreign language can also contribute to the challenges they face. Most panelists agreed that this insecurity can be linked to the fact that most Brazilians worry about speaking with faultless grammar, which is probably due to the prevailing English course systems in Brazil.

Practical tips for overcoming the English language barrier

Each of the invited panelists suggested valuable tips for understanding the language with less headache or butterflies in the stomach. Some of the recommended tips include:

Try not to get stuck in the grammatical rules of English. Accept the fact that it is okay to make mistakes and that jest and mimicry can be a great ally in your every day or scientific conversations.
Be mindful of the fact that many native English speakers can only speak English and so they are usually impressed with people that can speak more than one language.
A critical factor to truly experience the English language is continuous exposure through various experiences and sources (for example, traveling for tourism or scientific conferences, social events, music, movies, TV shows, social media).
When living abroad, try not to limit your social interactions to other Brazilians or foreigners only.
Always have a book in the English language handy to better understand text interpretation and expand your vocabulary.
And last but not the least, if you are unable to travel to an English-speaking country, always be aware of opportunities where you can listen to native English speakers through virtual meetings, such as events held by the Genetic Society of America.

About the author

J. Humberto Cunha graduated in Biomedical Science and is a member of the Genetics Society of America. He is also the Creative Director at Academic Genetics League.

Danielle F. Mello, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the laboratory of Environmental Marine Sciences (LEMAR UMR 6539), Functional Physiology of Marine Organisms Unit at Ifremer/University of Western Britanny, France.

Jadson C. Santos (Jall) is a PhD Candidate and Project Manager. He is the Co-chair of the Career Development Subcommittee at Genetics Society of America’s Early Career Leadership Program. He also writes a newsletter about Scientific Leadership, Collaboration, and Project Management for Scientists.

Farsi Multilingual Seminar: Farsi-speaking scientists discuss access to scientific resources and graduate school education

Guest Author — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 08:26:43 +0000

Guest post by Mehrnaz Afkani and Parinaz Khalilzadeh.

In July 2021, as part of the Genetics Society of America’s Multilingual Seminar Series, scientists fluent in Farsi came together with a goal of connecting with each other and providing a platform for speaking about science in Farsi. This included discussing some of the issues and barriers facing Farsi-speaking scientists. With the continuous global domination of English as the “language of science” after 1967, scientific resources in English currently have the highest impact and are recognized as the most trustworthy.

Having one dominant language in science has offered the chance to exchange knowledge and share research ideas among scientists worldwide. However, it has limitations for non-native English speakers, such as difficulties with writing grant applications and research manuscripts as well as oral presentations in English. These limitations often lead to gaps in knowledge exchanges between communities. During the seminar, two themes emerged: the difficulty of accessing scientific resources and essential employability skills in genetics.

Access to scientific resources

During the seminar, the topic of being able to access English resources in genetics came up. Given that access is often dependent on which country you are living in, this makes it difficult for geneticists in some non-native English-speaking countries to stay up to date with the recent developments.

As Dr. Narjes Yousefi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and one of the Farsi seminar panelists shared, one potentially fast solution is to email the authors of books or journal articles to request a copy. This solution has the added benefit of sometimes leading to collaboration. “In my master’s study, I found out that most of the articles that I was reading were from one person who did similar studies to mine on a larger scale,” Yousefi said. “So, I contacted him by email and told him that I am doing a similar study in northern Iran. I asked for some of his papers because, at that time, they were not accessible in Iran. Then, I asked him to become my committee member, and he accepted. He helped me tremendously through my work.”

Essential employability skills in genetics

The majority of participants in the Farsi seminar were students who were eager to continue their education at the graduate level, but were concerned their skills and knowledge were not good enough, which would limit their chance to obtain a graduate position. When a student interested in genetics pursues a bachelor’s or graduate degree, they learn a general knowledge of heredity. Students also have the opportunity to enhance soft skills and gain field, laboratory, and analytical skills. However, universities’ resources in the field act like a mirror, reflecting the education quality, unique curriculum, and well-equipped laboratories, which all raise the opportunity of getting a well-paid job.

Most of the highly equipped universities are in native English-speaking countries. Although these universities and their biology/genetics faculties are open to international students, competition is high, especially at the graduate level. This means that the difference between educational systems of developed and less-developed countries, the dominance of English language in these universities, and the availability of limited graduate-level spots can discourage some candidates. In some cases, the original country’s economic condition limits their chance in learning the most recent changes of essential skills in the genetics world.

Our panelists, Dr. Mohammad Reza Akbari, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and Dr. Mojgan Padash, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Oklahoma, both shared what their expectations were for students who wanted to pursue a graduate degree in their research group. Neither expect their incoming graduate students to know specific skills and methods. “Graduate students spend the first few months of graduate school learning essential methods for their projects. However, there are some basic things that everyone interested in genetics should know about, like DNA extraction and PCR (polymerase chain reaction),” Akbari said. Dr. Padash agreed and added that pipetting is also another fundamental skill that the student is expected to know. Every panelist agreed that at the personality level, having the right attitude toward problem solving and the drive to learn is essential.

Dr. Ahmad Reza Katouzian, who is a professional biologist of the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists (ASPB), added that it is important to be familiar with sampling methods. “If you do fieldwork, one of your hurdles will be getting your samples to the laboratory. You will need to keep this in mind for designing your project,” Katouzian said. As for analytical skills in a graduate genetic project, Dr. Narjes Yousefi suggested that it is a good idea to learn the basics of command line and programming languages such as R or Python. “Just like for learning the English language, put a specific time aside to learn bioinformatics,” Yousefi said.

Seminar attendees were also interested in the job market. In general, in the field of genetics, there are more job opportunities outside academia than there are within. With their experience in laboratory work, genetics students will have the opportunity to join companies that do laboratory-based work after graduation. Having bioinformatics skills enhances the chance of being hired in different biological companies.

Existing bias in the scientific community leads to lesser engagement of non-native English-speaking geneticists. Two critical concerns for participants in the Farsi seminar were accessibility to genetics resources and limitations in learning fundamental skills. After the event, we had requests from participants to continue holding seminars and workshops on different topics such as how to write a scientific paper in English, available funds for international students, recent sequencing techniques as well as teaching programming languages such as R and Python. This is evidence that the drive to learn about genetics as a career path is strong and programs like the multilingual seminar series help people, especially incoming students, connect people with the same native language, so they can learn how to navigate scientific resources and skills.

Special thanks to Rachel Fairbank for helping review this piece and to Jessica Velez for initiating the multilingual seminar series.

About the authors:

Mehrnaz Afkani is a PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma whose research focuses on evolution and neurogenetics. Her research uses the Drosophila melanogaster species complex to look at the female response toward the novel trait in the males called the posterior lobe. She got her master’s degree in Biosystematics from University of Tehran working on intertidal crabs. Her student group at OU, STEM Inclusion Council (SIC!), co-hosts a free coding workshop with a group of graduate students at the Miami University of Ohio.

Parinaz Khalilzadeh is a conservation geneticist. She is doing her second master’s at Laurentian University, Canada. Her research focuses on genetic monitoring of wild and reintroduced northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) populations: optimization of a slow recovery. Khalilzadeh completed her first master’s degree in biodiversity and habitats at Gorgan University, Iran, where she studied the genetic diversity of the Iranian wild boar Sus Scrofa.

For the first Multilingual Seminar, Arabic-speaking scientists discuss expanding accessibility through translation

Guest Author — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:02:26 +0000

Guest post by Marah Wahbeh and Arby Abood.

Last year, after a casual conversation with Spanish-speaking early career scientists about the struggle of communicating their work in Spanish, Jessica Vélez, PhD, was inspired to create the Multilingual Seminar Series. This series offers an opportunity for multilingual and non-English speaking scientists and science enthusiasts to talk about science in languages other than English, while also providing a space to discuss strategies for expanding science communication efforts to include non-English speakers.

When Jessica, who is also the GSA Membership, Engagement, and Early Career Program Manager, reached out to us to ask for our help in organizing and hosting the Arabic session, we enthusiastically agreed. Although we speak Arabic fluently, we use English to discuss our research. It wasn’t until Jessica invited us to collaborate that we realized we have isolated our identities and work as scientists from our mother tongue. This helped us realize that science accessibility has been limited in many ways to only English speakers.

With that as our motivation, we helped create the multilingual seminar session in Arabic, both as a way to explore the linguistic gap that exists, as well as to practice speaking and discussing science in Arabic with other scientists who share the same experiences. We started planning for the session by identifying our goals, as well as potential panelists. During this phase, we realized there is a scarcity of scientific resources in Arabic, as well as Arabic-speaking science communicators, which emphasized the need for this event.

When we reached out to potential panelists via Twitter as well as our networks, we saw first-hand a growing excitement about the opportunity to participate. Once we confirmed the panelists, we began advertising the event. Our efforts included reaching out to Arabic-speaking research groups on Facebook, sending out emails to institutions, as well as reaching out to students in the Middle East that we know. Our advertising efforts resulted in over 700 RSVPs!

The panel was comprised of Arabic-speaking scientists and science communicators from different levels of the academic track who are experts in their fields. This included: Rana Dajani, PhD; Ghada Amer, PhD; Tarek Abbas, PhD; Mouadh Benamar, PhD; and Eman Rabie, MSc.

During the seminar, they started by sharing their career journey and experiences with science communication in Arabic. Throughout the event, the discussion was very engaging as the panel had a wide range of expertise, experiences, and opinions on the topics discussed. Everyone agreed that every person has the right to learn science, as well as have access to the benefits of its advances, and that since the majority of the world’s population don’t speak English, science communication needs to expand to include other languages. Dr. Rana Dajani, professor of biology and biotechnology at the Hashemite University in Jordan said that “sometimes we forget that language can be a barrier and have a duty to society as scientists to make science accessible to all.”

During the session, one of the discussions was about expanding accessibility through direct (literal) translation of science concepts and words from English to Arabic. This sparked a debate on the sufficiency of translation alone and whether or not it is necessary in all cases. In the words of Dr. Tarek Abbas, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Virginia, “we need to differentiate between the language of science and using a language to talk about science.” Dr. Ghada Amer, Vice Dean for Postgraduate Studies and Research in the College of Engineering at Benha University, added that learning and using English is necessary for us as scientists to engage in the modern-day scientific community; however, the best scientists are those who are able to effectively communicate their science to their own communities.

This is where science communication efforts play a huge role. Although translation can help, understanding scientific concepts requires the use of simplified language that is clear of scientific jargon, similar to discussions around science communication to an audience of English speakers. It’s also important to note that the audience for whom a scientist speaks determines the language.

Simplified language or not, “we can’t deny that there is a benefit to a universal language for science and having it be English is just what it is now,” Dr. Abbas said. The use of one language to discuss science facilitates collaboration across the world, makes communication between scientists easier, and overall, is similar to the many other industries and professions that use English as their language of communication.

Although many agreed with Dr. Abbas, others had the opposite idea. Because science is for everyone including all who speak different languages than English, limiting its accessibility to English speakers creates a language barrier that excludes the majority of the world’s population. This barrier can be eliminated if we expand the use of science terms to other languages.

The panelists also shared different initiatives and efforts for communicating science in Arabic. Dr. Dajani described an initiative in Jordan that encourages students to read, write, and contribute to simple science content online in Arabic through translating Wikipedia pages. This allows contributors to learn how to engage in science in Arabic while also benefiting people who are searching for explanations of science concepts in Arabic online. Other efforts include conferences focused on showcasing Arab scientists such as MIT’s Arab Conference and Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium. Dr. Amer shared that the Arab Science & Technology Foundation started the Center of Strategic Studies for Science and Technology last year, with the goal of engaging Arabic-speaking scientists. Moreover, networks like the Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World (SASTA) were mentioned as a way to connect and learn from the expertise of other Arabic-speaking scientists. The panel also suggested that future initiatives should focus on translating scientific jargon into standardized Arabic phrases, paralleling practices already implemented in Mandarin and Cantonese.

There is a need for spaces where non-English speaking and multilingual scientists can talk about science and science communication in an inclusive way that does not exclude non-English speakers. This is highlighted by the fact that we had 200 extremely engaged participants from all over the world with differing science backgrounds. 88 responded to a feedback survey with the majority expressing positive feedback and interest in events like this in the future. As one of the attendees shared, “I think the most valuable aspect of the event was the fact that there were Arabic-speaking scientists representing different countries and each had unique interests.”

In conclusion, discussion series like GSA’s Multilingual Seminar series not only address the language barriers in science, but also stress the need to use our multilingual expertise to discuss and share science to those who don’t speak English. Moreover, given the recent uptick of misinformation perpetrated by anti-science propaganda across the world, having the tools of communicating science in two or more languages is essential.

Join the GSA’s Multilingual Slack workspace to connect with other scientists in multiple languages!

About the authors:

Abdullah “Arby” Abood is a PhD candidate, bioinformatician, and data scientist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Arby’s research focuses on leveraging the transcriptome to inform bone mineral density (BMD) genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Arby is an alumnus of the NIH Biomedical Data Science training grant. Website: www.arby-abood.com Twitter: @ArbyAbood

Marah Wahbeh is a member of the Early Career Scientist Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee and a 5th year PhD candidate in Human Genetics at Johns Hopkins. She works in the lab of Dimitri Avramopoulos where she studies schizophrenia genetic risk variants in stem cells.