Hints for Professional and Public Speaking Robert Jedicke 23 June 2009

Qualifications 30+ years of public speaking – Hundreds of public talks to schools, rotary, conferences, astronomy clubs, etc. – Keynote speaker – Many TV, radio, newspaper interviews – examples years of professional speaking Former Friends of IfA faculty coordinator

Preparation Well in advance Practice by yourself Practice in front of others Target your audience – Do not ‘dumb down’ Review & practice immediately before giving the talk Show up early to address technical issues

Preparation Do NOT use all your time Aim to finish early Public and professional talks are not so different – ‘experts’ on your topic are hard to find

Presentation Dress appropriately Do not move around Do not fiddle Do not same ‘ah’ and ‘um’ Look towards the audience Do not overuse a pointer – Try to make your talk pointer-less – Have arrows & highlights appear on screen Use a remote clicker

Presentation Spend MOST of your time on introductory material – Setup the problem/issue Outlines are over-rated – They take time, add little Use a microphone! – Preferably a headset – You want to be heard by everybody – You do not speak as loud as you think you do

Presentation NEVER apologize – takes time – highlights your failures NEVER bullshit – If you don’t know something, say so

Creating slides (layout) Think about layout Use a consistent style throughout talk Maximize screen size Remember that lowest part of screen is often difficult to see Use simple background Use simple/consistent slide transition Do not over use color text

Creating slides (text) Use large, simple text and font Use consistent font throughout Minimize text – People read rather than listen – Nobody is going to reference or read your talk Minimize text per slide Animate text so people read what/when you want

Creating slides (text) No strange line breaks Do not read off the screen – Read off your laptop while facing audience Use images on most slides to highlight text Use x% transparent text background for overlays USE AUTOMATIC SPELLCHECKING!!!

Creating slides (images) Maximize images on each slide – E.g. put text on image Maximize relevant part of image – Irrelevant parts can be off screen Think about layout! Use borders They can overlap!

Creating slides (figures) Maximize figures on each slide – E.g. put text on figure – Place other figs/images on top Think about layout! Use borders

Creating slides (animation) Do not abuse slide animation – Use it appropriately and effectively Use movies/animations – Make them part of the animation sequence so you do not have to click on them

Public speaking Minimize equations Avoid figures – Especially log axes! Avoid metric units Avoid exponential notation – Write out all the digits Use comparison scales – E.g one-millionth human hair width

Professional Talks Reference figures – But do not make it distracting

Documentation Keep a record of the origin of images, figures, text, etc in the text section associated with the slide

Examples

Connecting the First Nanoseconds to the Origin of Life

Stars forming at z=10! Simulation As observed through 30-meter telescope R=3000, 10 5 seconds, Barton et al., 2004, ApJ 604, L1 1 Mpc (comoving)

Simulated 1 Mpc (comoving) As observed through 30-meter telescope R=3000, 10 5 seconds, Barton et al., 2004, ApJ 604, L1 Star formation at z=10

Exploring other solar systems Artist conception of planetary system orbiting around 55 Cancri using results of radial velocity Keck observations More than 100 planets around other stars detected so far (“indirect” technique- very small periodic spectral line shifts indicate orbital motion) Most planetary systems vastly different from Solar System No direct images of other planetary systems so far

Artist conception of planetary system around 55 Cancri More than 100 planets already known around other stars Exploring other solar systems

GSMT  Detection of 55 CnC b/c Chemical composition of Atmosphere of 55 CnC b Sudarsky, Burrows & Hubeny, Cancri – physical characterization by spectroscopy

Sudarsky, Burrows & Hubeny, Cancri

The physics of giant exo-planets Goal: Image and characterize exo-planets –Mass, radius, albedo –Atmospheric structure –Chemistry  physics of giant planet formation  repercussion for formation of terrestrial planets, life on terrestrial planets –Rotation –“Weather” Measurements: R~ 10 photometry & R ~ 200 spectra –Near-infrared (reflected light) –Mid-infrared (thermal emission) Role of GSMT: Enable measurements via –High sensitivity –High angular resolution

Physics of giant exo-planets Goals: mass radius albedo atmosphere chemistry rotation weather

Physics of giant exo-planets Measurements: near-infrared mid-infrared

Physics of giant exo-planets GSMT: high sensitivity high resolution