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IMAGE: At the time of this publication, our lab meetings typically consisted of one principal investigator, 5-10 graduate students, one postdoctoral fellow, some undergraduates, and a few visiting students. view more
Credit: Courtesy Caitlin Hurd
A new paper, published recently in
PLOS Computational Biology by a team including UMass Amherst researchers, seeks to help scientists structure their lab-group meetings so that they are more inclusive, more productive and, ultimately, lead to better science.
The word scientist might conjure images of lab-coated researchers tending bubbling beakers or building supercomputers, but an enormous amount of scientific work takes place around a conference table during weekly group meetings. There is plenty of good research showing that diversity and inclusion make the science itself better, says Kadambari Devarajan, one of the paper s co-lead authors and a graduate student in organismic and evolutionary biology as well