Hints for Professional and Public Speaking

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Hints forProfessional and PublicSpeaking
Robert Jedicke23 June 2009
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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
• http//www.ifa.hawaii.edu/videos/EinsteinSanta480.
  shtml
• http//www.ifa.hawaii.edu/videos/KillerAsteroids.s
  html
• 20 years of professional speaking
• Former Friends of IfA faculty coordinator

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Presentation

• NEVER apologize
• takes time
• highlights your failures
• NEVER bullshit
• If you dont know something, say so

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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

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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

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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!!!

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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!

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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

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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

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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

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Professional Talks

• Reference figures
• But do not make it distracting

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Documentation

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

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Examples
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GSMT's Domain
Connecting the First Nanoseconds to the Origin of
Life
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(No Transcript)
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Stars forming at z10!
1 Mpc (comoving)
As observed through 30-meter telescope R3000,
105 seconds, Barton et al., 2004, ApJ 604, L1
Simulation
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Star formation at z10
1 Mpc (comoving)
Simulated
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Exploring other solar systems
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 orbiting
around 55 Cancri using
results of radial velocity Keck observations
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Exploring other solar systems
More than 100 planets already known around other
stars
Artist conception of planetary system around 55
Cancri
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55 Cancri physical characterization by

spectroscopy
GSMT ? Detection of 55 CnC b/c Chemical
composition of Atmosphere of 55 CnC b
Sudarsky, Burrows Hubeny, 2003
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55 Cancri
Sudarsky, Burrows Hubeny, 2003
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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

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Physics of giant exo-planets

• Goals
• mass
• radius
• albedo
• atmosphere
• chemistry
• rotation
• weather

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Physics of giant exo-planets

• Measurements
• near-infrared
• mid-infrared

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Physics of giant exo-planets

• GSMT
• high sensitivity
• high resolution