Community-driven online initiatives have reshaped scientific engagement

James P K Armstrong; Irene de Lázaro; Natalie J Kirkland; Wilson Poon; Shrey Sindhwani

doi:10.1038/s41578-021-00384-y

Community-driven online initiatives have reshaped scientific engagement

Nat Rev Mater. 2021;6(11):963-965. doi: 10.1038/s41578-021-00384-y. Epub 2021 Oct 8.

Authors

James P K Armstrong¹, Irene de Lázaro^{2

3}, Natalie J Kirkland⁴, Wilson Poon^{5

6}, Shrey Sindhwani⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, UK.
² John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA.
³ Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, MA USA.
⁴ Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA.
⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA USA.
⁶ UCSF Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Abstract

Scientists have reacted to COVID-19 restrictions by organizing virtual seminars and journal clubs to maintain engagement. We reflect on our experiences and lessons learned from organizing such initiatives and highlight how, far from being temporary substitutes of in-person counterparts, they can help foster more diverse, inclusive and environmentally friendly scientific exchange.

Keywords: Careers; Conferences and meetings; Scientific community.