Informal Personal
Introductions
Gail P. Taylor, Ph.D.
UTSA MBRS-RISE/MARC U*STAR
Programs
09/09/2013
Science Is Communication
Many forms – Papers, talks, etc…
 Begins with Introductions!

– New colleagues
– New labmates
– Scientific Conferences

Involve both exchanging name AND
information about your research
Conference Introductions
Will introduce yourself to many people
 Very important for networking
 Need different lengths…

 5 second
 ~1 minute
 ~3 minute
If you Practice Your
Introductions You Will be
More Fluent!
Confidence and Introductions
Everybody is nervous and unconfident at times, but
mask in different ways
Confidence and warmth impress people and draw
them to you
You don’t have to show people that you’re nervous
The more you do something, the more confident you
feel
Intro will look more confident if you





–
–
–
–
Have a firm handshake
Look people in the eye
Speak fluently
PRACTICE!
Aside about Imposter Syndrome






Some people may persistently disbelieve that
they deserve to be in a position, level of
education, etc.
Someone has made a mistake
Everyone else is smarter
All successes are an accident or luck…
Women, minority, first generation college
students often fall prey
“Lies” in their heads…believe that they are less
smart than everyone…
Handshakes
Posture
Important for first impressions!
 Always stand up for a handshake and
introduction!

http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/How_does_one_give_a_proper_handshake
Components of a an “Western”
Handshake
Eye contact
 Grip
 Position
 Shake

Handshake Overview…
Establish eye contact
 Break eye contact, if needed, to extend
your hand to meet theirs
 When the web of your hand meets the
web of theirs, re-establish eye contact and
engage grip.
 Tiny shakes two or three times, for 1-3
seconds, breaking off cleanly and
smoothly before the introduction is over.

Details
May break eye contact to find hand…
 Cultural issue…
 Make sure thumb webs contact
 Whole hand (not the Gwenevere!)
 Firm, but not crushing
 2-3 shakes, straight wrist

The Introduction Itself
Smile.
 Initiate Handshake/Hello, I’m Gail Taylor
(Listen to theirs)
 End handshake
 I’m an undergraduate biology major at UT
San Antonio. I work in Dr. Firstname
Lastname’s lab on superficial explanation
of research.

Example

Hello, I’m Gail Taylor. I’m an
undergraduate Biology student at UT San
Antonio. I work in Dr. Martha Lundell’s
laboratory on serotonin neuron
differentiation in Drosophila.
Next….
Longer introduction
 Much more specific
 Answer for question: “Tell me about your
research…”

Longer Introduction of your Work

I have worked for the last year in a half, in Dr.
firstname lastname’s laboratory on neuronal
development in drosophila. I’ve had several
projects. My main project involves…”Put
smoothed abstract title here”. Say something
about why your experiment was important to
the world. We hypothesized that …. We used
………. (briefly put methods, techniques used
here). We found (results here). We
expected/didn’t expect this because. Next I will
do ___________.