Seminars

Seminars offer a platform to exchange knowledge and share advancements with a community. While workshops often emphasize interactivity, these presentations still foster discussion via questions and feedback. Beyond the presentations, these events promote networking activities, especially following the presentation when the audience and speaker can connect over the shared knowledge base. While in-person seminars are often held at local universities or institutions, virtual seminars (webinars) and hybrid seminars are becoming more ubiquitous and accessible.

Virtual Scientific Seminar Series

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Science Seminar Series: Broad assortment of presentations with varying interests and scope, typically with one or more presentations a week
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling (ACOM) Seminars: Hybrid seminar series hosted out of Boulder, Colorado
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology (MMM) Seminars: Hybrid seminar series hosted out of Boulder, Colorado
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Seminars: Hybrid seminar series hosted out of Boulder, Colorado
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) High Altitude Observatory (HAO) Colloquium: Hybrid seminar series hosted out of Boulder, Colorado
• National Ecological Observatory Network Science Seminar Series: Monthly seminars about ecology and climate change- requires registration, though recordings are available for most talks
• Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series (FACCS): Semester-based seminars highlighting new/unpublished results from junior and senior faculty, typically twice a month (currently on hiatus)

Skill-Based Seminar Series

• National Ecological Observatory Network Data Skills Webinars: Hosted several times throughout the year with typically specialized topics (e.g., biorepositories, aquatic sensors) in the fields of ecology and climate change
• The National Institutes of Health Becoming a Resilient Scientist series: Both virtual and in-person workshops with topics including self-advocacy, managing mentoring relationships, and habit-building

Recordings of Past Seminars

• American Geophysical Union (AGU) Early Career Seminars: Recordings of seminars presented by early career scientists
• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate Change Science Seminar Series: Twelve seminars connecting agriculture and the implications of climate change
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling (ACOM) Seminars: YouTube channel with >200 videos of past seminars NCAR ACOM seminars

Make the Most out of Seminars

Seminars can vary by audience engagement and technical depth, but while each seminar is different, there are a few general guidelines on improving your experience.

• Pick your seminar wisely: There are several reasons to join a seminar, whether it's to learn scientific advances in your field, learn about a different field, identify potential collaborators, or any other number of reasons, seminars are valuable opportunities for expanding your knowledge and professional development. However, seminars can be time and energy intensive. When considering whether to attend a seminar, consider-
  • Is it relevant to your career goals or interests?
  • Is it a networking opportunity?
  • Will you need to prepare anything before the seminar?
  • Will it be recorded? (This is particularly important if there are time constraints involved.)

• Take notes: Whether you're noting down topics, summaries, or citations for papers, note taking will help you stay engaged with the material.

• As questions: Depending on the theme of seminar, questions are an opportunity to clarify an understanding or ask for more information. With skill-based seminars, audience questions can be key to help guide discussions.

• Follow up: Following up is especially important if networking is one of your goals and can be done either in person or via email. If this person's work is particularly interesting, you can use this time to connect it with your own work, or privately ask questions that didn't suit the open questions time held during the seminar. Even followup emails thanking the speaker are welcome.