Speak Up
I like speakers. I love good speakers. And I have to say, I was very pleased with many of the seminar speakers we had. So pros and cons: lots of biology fields were definitely covered, and I enjoyed learning about the research that Duke faculty are so well-known for. Life stories were always a plus. It almost makes me want to start working in everyone's lab...not practical of course. I noticed that some talks were designed like an interest talks, whereas others got really nitty-gritty with details; the former type of talk was much more effective at keeping my attention.
Unfortunately, the timing of the seminars were, as many of my colleagues mentioned, inconvenient. Many times I had to drop and experiment or rush back after the seminar to finish. I don't think my lab was particularly happy with me leaving 2 hours earlier than them either. Even though it was for seminars, not frolicking in the sun, I probably seem like a bit of a slacker to them. Also, even though I know this is a biological sciences program, I wish there were more interdisciplinary subjects and speakers: for example, some chemistry faculty or some graduate department faculty.
