Question: have you found any draw-backs to giving scientific speeches to such a large number of people? have you found that you don't get through to them all?

Ceri Brenner answered on 16 Jun 2011:

i love giving talks about my research, it’s one of my fave things to do. however, giving a scientific talk to a scientific audience can be really quite nerve wracking! sometimes, yes, i am nervous that i won’t get the message across properly as it’s hard to put complicated subjects into words, and then sometimes i’m nervous because i think ‘eek, they know so much more than me and they’ll definitely know if i slip up’. But the more practice I get, the more confident I get and most of the time the audience is fairly understanding that when you’re just a PhD student it can be quite intimidating.