I went to my first SETAC meeting in Portland in November 2010. I was in the middle of two grad school classes, three fellowship proposals, trying to figure out what project I would focus on for my PhD thesis. All of this on top of presenting a poster on my naive attempt at microarray data analysis while trying to manage my time at a meeting with over 2000+ people seemed like a daunting task for the natural introvert. I spent most of the meeting hovering around my advisors and made some attempts at conversation at the student-mentor dinner but left soon after dessert. I enjoyed the experience but didn't come home with anything too spectacular, apart from jet-lag.
The Boston meeting in November 2011 was a big turn-around from the year before: I had just finished an amazing research fellowship stay in Japan that summer, had passed my PhD qualifying exam, and was enjoying my first year as an EPA STAR fellow. I even had a poster that people seemed interested in (and a good spot that seemed to help with the flow of traffic). On top of that, I had just a few weeks before been voted in as the Vice Chair of the SETAC North America Student Advisory Council. I put in my application for the position after having served as the Southeast chapter student rep since March, having been on a few conference calls and with some idea of what the job entailed (or so I thought). I was introduced to the SNA Board of Directors by the then Chair Ashley, not really knowing what I was getting myself into and how this room of people would help shape the person that I became during grad school and in how being involved in NASAC would shape my future as an environmental scientist.
Fast forward to February 2012 and a small hotel on the beaches of Pensacola, as I found myself sitting in a board room with this same group of people, absolutely terrified out of my mind. Ashley had to TA that semester and couldn't make it to the board meeting as NASAC Chair, so I was there in her absence. Thoughts that came to mind quickly included but were not limited to "What am I doing here?" "What are all these acronyms?" "What in the world is LCA?" Thankfully I soon learned that the BoD, acronyms and all, were an amazing and friendly group of people and were not in any way to be feared. Barnett, who was then President, gave me time to say a few words about NASAC and I gave a short update on what we were working on and that I would be presenting our activities at the upcoming World Congress in Berlin. I even managed to overcome my natural shyness and give a couple of suggestions about indicating that coffee breaks should be marked as time to stand by your poster at annual meetings-which I think they still use to this day.
May of that same year came in a flash, and thanks to my EPA STAR fellowship I was able to present my work, and the work of NASAC, at the SETAC World Congress in Berlin. To be honest, the majority of this week was spent working as one of the student volunteers. I had a blast at the meeting, met friends that I still keep in touch with, but with days lasting from 7am-7pm and way too many beers and doner kebabs to be had, I was just barely surviving with a coffee IV that week in Germany. My poster had some good feedback and I presented our NASAC activities at the SETAC Europe student assembly, while throughout the week heard about what SAC Europe was up to. I made promises (over beers, of course) to come to the YES meeting in Krakow next February and see what that meeting was like, even with the somewhat dull prospect of visiting Poland in the middle of winter. Somewhere in the midst of my caffeine-induced running around the conference center I shook hands with the newly-elected Vice Chair of SAC Europe, with some vague discussions of plans to talk more in Long Beach which soon became an ongoing collaboration, and friendship, between Dragan and myself.
Summer quickly passed (getting married sure took quite a bit of my free time!) and I assumed the role of NASAC Chair a few weeks early due to Ashley needing to step down. I again took the long trip to the West Coast and soon realized that this SETAC meeting was the start of something different. I was now the Chair of NASAC, a group of 18-ish students from all over SETAC North America, and it was our job to represent student interests in SETAC and to make the SETAC student experience a great one. Somewhere in between hours of board meetings (which I knew the acronyms for now at least!), some low turn-out for our student events, and a stellar presentation about the upcoming SETAC YES meeting in Krakow, I took the red eye back to Gainesville inspired, and ready to work to unleash all of the great potential I saw in NASAC and in SETAC students as a whole.
I am not entirely sure what all happened the year I was Chair, but between the conference calls with NASAC/the Nashville program committee/SNA BoD, frequent emails with the SETAC office, and the fuel of motivation I brought home from Long Beach, things really started to pick up. Ideas started coming from everywhere, people that hadn't talked on a conference call ever before started getting really involved. I felt like we were really becoming a group set out to do great things, and being the leader of this group was a great boost for me. Gradually my natural introvert tendencies melted away, and while I'd still always rather listen than talk, the thought of speaking my mind in front of a large group or leading a conference call wasn't so daunting anymore. Throughout the year this momentum started building, and while it was a lot of work to guide it and keep it going, I greatly enjoyed it, and it gave me something constructive to focus on outside of the slightly less exciting task of writing my PhD thesis.
At the same time that NASAC was starting to flourish, I continued to be inspired by SAC Europe and their activities. The YES meeting in Krakow, the third of its kind, really showed me what SETAC students can achieve: organizing an entire conference for students, by students, raising money for travel grants for participants from all over the world, and having a scientific program that rivals that of most other international meetings. I was also happy to work with the SAC more closely for the YES 2015 meeting and was able to be a part of the discussions and plans for this event, which I became more heavily involved with as my next career move brought me a bit more geographically closer to Serbia than I was while in Florida. As part of the work with SAC Europe, we realized even more the potential that students could reach within the Society and that our efforts combined could really make a difference for the voice of students in SETAC. Social media pages, blogs, letters, and meeting proposals soon followed, and I am ecstatic at having been able to watch and be a part of the growth of SETAC students on a global level.
November 2013 brought an end to my Chairship of NASAC, with the unexpected opportunity to SPEAK at the opening ceremony. Going from the NASAC Vice Chair who sat in the board room in Pensacola afraid to speak her mind to the NASAC Chair giving a talk to 500+ people while making sarcastic jokes about February in Poland, hearing the SNA President say such uplifting things about me, was surreal to say the least. Everything about that SETAC meeting in Nashville was fantastic (apart from the Christmas music) but even more important is that things didn't stop after Nashville. This momentum of students having a clear voice within SETAC keeps going and doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. The ideas that started to come from those conference calls are now coming to life, and things that we had planned and discussed as being great opportunities, like having SETAC YES meetings in North America, became realities.
Amidst all my ramblings about SETAC should be some clear answer to the initial question: "What does SETAC mean to you?" On a broader level, SETAC is the place where you can enhance your science while at the same time enhancing yourself-with opportunities not only to learn about LCA or ecological modelling but opportunities to present your work in front of 'grown-up' scientists or a room of scary people saying acronyms and realize you're not beneath them, you're one of them. SETAC is the perfect place for this, as I'm convinced that environmental toxicologists and chemists are some of the best scientists around, especially in the sense of making you feel welcome and never making you feel like you're a little person just because you're new(er) to the field. On a personal level, SETAC is the place where I was able to gain confidence in myself, to feel able to share my ideas and perspectives, and to see the results of hard work and good communication in a really impactful way. The things I experienced and learned while in NASAC, and since then as I've continued working with NASAC and the SAC, continue to give me confidence as I enter into the next stage of my career no longer as a student but as a future leader in toxicology, as scary as that still sounds!
A lot of the things that SETAC mean to me came to fruition at the last YES meeting in Serbia. The culmination of flying to Serbia twice for meetings at Petnica Science Center, numerous skype calls and endless email strings with Dragan and the LOC Chair Tomica, and the tireless amount of work spent fundraising and emailing speakers and so many endless little things, all of which came together last March in the most fantastic way possible. Seeing what the students of SETAC could achieve as a group, the ideas that came from that event, the positive vibes surrounding the meeting itself, and the heartfelt thanks from friends and colleagues made for an unforgettable March for me. Additionally, walking around the Belgrade Fortress with Dragan and PhD comics author Jorge Cham after dinner while singing the Game of Thrones theme song was something of a personal highlight (dun dun, duh duh dun dun!).
With this post being quite long enough already, perhaps it's best to let some pictures speak for themselves about what SETAC has meant for me-a place for great science, great friends, and a chance to gain the confidence you need to be a part of the next generations of toxicologists.
Apparently no SETAC photos exist from before 2013! Which is probably for the best, based on my outfit choice here in Krakow with the YES 2013 scientific committee at the closing ceremony.
YES 2015 plans being hashed out on a balmy summer night in Serbia, August 2013
Nashville stylin' with my SETAC best friend Dragan, November 2013
For some reason the #SETACselfie trend didn't really catch on. Nonetheless, we carry on! SAC Europe meeting at Petnica in September 2014
NASAC at the Vancouver meeting (Nov 2014). Such an enthusiastic group, and I'm already looking forward to YES 2016 in Florida hosted by these amazing guys.
And to top things off, the YES 2015 group photo. A picture is worth 1000 words, indeed!
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