Hey-o, Jay-o

Today, our department hosted Jay Ingram as a speaker for the Career Talk seminar series that I have worked on over the past year. Most of you Canadians should know who Jay Ingram is; currently, co-host of the Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel; previously host of the CBC radio show 'Quirks and Quarks'. He has a number of other accolades that I will not mention, although I do know them from having introduced him today at the start of his talk.
Actually, my dad listened to the 'Quirks and Quarks' radio show on Sunday mornings for many years while I was growing up, and I feel that Jay Ingram's voice is a distinct feature of my childhood. Today, it was a pleasure to meet him in person and hear that voice live.

Anticipating larger than usual interest in this Career Talk, due to Jay's celebrity status, we held the seminar in a large classroom that was nearly filled for the lecture. Jay put on a very informal presentation, sitting in front of the class and chatting to us about his life, career path and the wisdom he has gained through his choices throughout life. No powerpoint presentation today, that's for sure. In fact, some of the best presentations I have seen in the last few years have been those that are lightly dependent on, or completely void of, powerpoint presentations. Perhaps these people are just inherently comfortable with presenting and, even if they had powerpoint presentations, would have given great talks anyway. However, I rather believe that there is something interactive and intimate when you present independent of a visual aid and are capable of keeping the audience captivated based upon your words alone. I hope someday to attain this capacity, but in the meantime I'll stick to my trusty powerpoint presentation.

In any case, the talk was interesting, filled with helpful advice (for example, don't expect to become another Jay Ingram, because there are few careers like that around) and interesting anecdotes from his time as a U of A undergrad (something to do with engineers and manure...). After that, the grad students met with Jay for lunch, where we plied him with all our questions (well, not that many questions, since he talks for a long time when you ask him one question and you only have to prompt him every so often in a new direction).

I could write more regarding the interesting things we talked about in this lunch, especially since, as the organizer, I often step in with my own questions to fill quiet gaps, which allows me to have more direct interaction with this Canadian media icon that some of the other students. In particular, we discussed how we can communicate with the public about science and all the amazing things science has to offer, in a way that doesn't frighten the general public away. I'm particularly interested in my ability to communicate with the public regarding my research, as I've had several experiences over the past years where I struggle to describe what I do in terms that almost anyone can understand. I hope to work on this over the next little while, so I'll let you know how it goes and if I take significant steps forward to get my knowledge out to the public. That's an enigmatic comment, I know, but I'm tired of writing all of this out and it's hard to describe without a lot of details.