Science, up close and personal
A look at the past, present, and future of scientific conferences
ince 1957, the Welch Foundation has been bringing together chemistry’s greatest minds at its conference in Houston. But, like so many other events, this annual ritual was disrupted by the pandemic until this past October, when the Welch
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Conference on Chemical Research took place in person. This return to form gave this year’s attendees the opportunity to reflect on the broader value and importance of face-to-face scientific gatherings.
By Michael Eisenstein,
C&EN BrandLab
Hear from Adam Kuspa, President of the Welch Foundation, a historic perspective of why scientists go to conferences.
The practice of scientific inquiry extends back over millennia, but the idea of bringing together researchers to share their work and exchange ideas is far younger. The first international scientific conference was held in 1860, but scientists soon recognized the value of routinely having such meetings. By the early days of the Welch Conference—the late 1950s and early 60s—staying on top of the scientific literature was reasonably straightforward. But the meeting offered an invaluable opportunity to directly engage with the newest ideas from leading chemists and physicists like Glenn Seaborg, a Nobel laureate who contributed to the discovery of ten elements in the periodic table, one of which now bears his name.
An exchange of ideas
Credit: The Welch Foundation
Attendees of the first Welch Conference, held November 20, 1957. The topic was “The Structure of the Nucleus.”
2022 Welch Awardee Carolyn Bertozzi, Stanford University, discusses the relative merits of large versus small conferences.
Credit: American Chemical Society
Large scientific conferences, such as the ACS annual meetings, can draw tens of thousands of participants.
The number of meetings held per year is virtually impossible to count. Conferences today come in all shapes and sizes, from massive cross-disciplinary events like the annual meetings of the American Chemical Society, which routinely draws upward of 15,000 attendees, to smaller, more targeted gathering like the Welch Conference. For this event, Welch hosts a few dozen hand-picked speakers focused on a single theme—past conferences have revolved around topics ranging from electrochemistry to genome modification with CRISPR—often with 1,000 or fewer participants. Both kinds of conference play a critical role in the scientific community.
Something for everyone
What part does the human factor play in scientific conferences? Doug Foshee, Chairman of the Board of the Welch Foundation shares his view.
Credit: The Welch Foundation
Attendees of the 2022 Welch Conference enjoyed the opportunity to chat informally with fellow scientists.
Early in the pandemic, countless scientific meetings were canceled or postponed, and for most of 2020 and 2021, these events were instead hosted virtually on platforms like Zoom. With COVID-19 vaccines now widely available, many researchers are once again willing to travel to meetings—and recognizing what they missed while they were away. In a recent column in Science, Rasha Shraim, a PhD student at Trinity College in Dublin, wrote that 2 years of isolation and Zoom chats had left her feeling stalled in her research. But after attending her first in-person meeting over the summer, Shraim says, “I could feel my enthusiasm for science returning.”
The strangeness of now
Stanford University professor W. E. Moerner, organizer of the 2022 Welch Conference, discusses how the meeting framework can drive interdisciplinary interactions.
Credit: W. E. Moerner
A “bowtie” nanoantenna can focus light and allow for imaging on a single molecule. Scale bar is 20 nm.
In some ways, this year’s Welch Conference was simply a continuation of the foundation’s longstanding mission to support and promote world-changing chemistry research—particularly from scientists based in Texas. The theme this year was “Molecules and Sculpted Light,” a topic that blurs the boundaries between chemistry and many other disciplines. Accordingly, conference organizer W. E. Moerner, a Nobel laureate and expert in single-molecule imaging, deliberately set out to create a program that would fuel interactions and conversations across disciplines.
Connected by a common thread
Doug Foshee discusses why the Welch Foundation is standing up for science.
Credit: The Welch Foundation
Peter Hotez delivering the first-ever Welch Conference keynote address, in which he discussed the anti-science movement.
Amid all the soul-searching about whether and why in-person meetings are essential to science, most major conferences have returned to some measure of business as usual. But the Welch Foundation also took the opportunity to revamp some aspects of the design of its conference, adding features intended to entice people back to in-person attendance. For example, this year’s event was moved from its past location near the Houston suburbs to a high-end hotel in the heart of the city. These little changes matter. A 2022 article in Chemistry World weighing the pros and cons of in-person meetings highlighted the value of such events as “a holiday away from the lab—a chance to catch up with colleagues while enjoying a change of scenery.” As an added draw, Welch included a keynote presentation for the first time. The inaugural keynote speaker was Peter Hotez, a well-known and highly respected expert in virology and vaccine development, who spoke of the dangers posed by the vocal and growing anti-science movement.
A meeting for the moment
Carolyn Bertozzi talks about how a meeting helped change the direction of her award-winning research.
Credit: The Welch Foundation
Carolyn Bertozzi gives a presentation on her research after receiving this year’s Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry.
Like reagents combining in solution to catalyze a reaction, the random interactions that occur during the course of a meeting can yield collaborations that help kick a stalled research project into motion or even initiate a whole new line of scientific inquiry. A 2021 study by scientists at Northwestern University found that researchers who actively engaged with colleagues at meetings were eight times as likely to embark on collaborations than those who did not. In fact, Stanford chemist Carolyn Bertozzi made critical headway in her glycobiology research—which earned her this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry as well as the 2022 Robert A. Welch Award—through just such a chance encounter.
Chance encounters, lasting impact
Hear why UT Southwestern professor Steve McKnight is enthusiastic about the future of ‘hybrid’ conferences.
Credit: The Welch Foundation
Getting together at the Welch Conference brings smiles and elbow bumps.
In-person meetings may be back, but not everybody is ready—or able—to make the trip. Accordingly, this year’s Welch Conference featured a new hybrid format, wherein registrants could livestream the entire event and engage with speakers via questions posted online. The conference also included a virtual poster session for researchers to share their work. A number of other conferences—including ACS Fall 2022 in Chicago and the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—have adopted a hybrid model. A 2021 survey by Nature found that 74% of respondents would like to see conferences retain virtual participation postpandemic. And in the longer term, this format could have a profoundly democratizing effect. Registration fees for many conferences range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, along with the price of travel and lodging. A free or low-cost remote access option could greatly increase the number of people who engage with scientific meetings, including researchers with limited resources or students who are only beginning to consider a scientific career.
Bringing more ideas to the table
disrupted by the pandemic until this past October, when the Welch Conference on Chemical Research took place in person. This return to form gave this year’s attendees the opportunity to reflect on the broader value and importance of face-to-face scientific gatherings.
ince 1957, the Welch Foundation has been bringing together chemistry’s greatest minds at its conference in Houston. But, like so many other events, this annual ritual was
S
Houston. But, like so many other events, this annual ritual was disrupted by the pandemic until this past October, when the Welch Conference on Chemical Research took place in person. This return to form gave this year’s attendees the opportunity to reflect on the broader value and importance of face-to-face scientific gatherings.
ince 1957, the Welch Foundation has been bringing together chemistry’s greatest minds at its conference in
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To learn more about the science presented at the Welch Conference “Molecules and Sculpted light,” listen to our companion audio story.
To learn more about the science presented at the Welch Conference “Molecules and Sculpted light,” listen to our companion audio story.
2023 Welch Conference Sneak Peak: “Living in a Material World”
Leading materials scientists will come together Oct. 23–24, 2023, to tackle some of the biggest scientific questions of our time. Sessions include those on energy and sustainability, the “plastics” of the future, hierarchical and multifunctional materials, and material systems for human wellness. Organized by Catherine J. Murphy of the University of Illinois, the conference is sure to drive the field forward.
Learn more
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Learn more