Abstract
The Student Council of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB-SC) is a student-focused organization for researchers from all early career levels of training (undergraduates, masters, PhDs and postdocs) that organizes bioinformatics and computational biology activities across the globe. Among its activities, the ISCB-SC organizes several symposia in different continents, many times, with the help of the Regional Student Groups (RSGs) that are based on each region. In this editorial we highlight various key moments and learned lessons from the 14th Student Council Symposium (SCS, Chicago, USA), the 5th European Student Council Symposium (ESCS, Athens, Greece) and the 3rd Latin American Student Council Symposium (LA-SCS, Viña del Mar, Chile).
Highlights
The International Society for Computational Biology Student Council (ISCB-SC) is composed of and led by student and postdoctoral researchers
We summarize the main goals of the symposia, our general structure, and how each of the individual events is tailored for its specific purpose
The importance of transferable skills such as teamwork and management, networking, leadership and effective communication, has been prioritized to achieve success both in the academic and scientific community[17], with many researches showing a correlation between their networking and career outcomes[18]
Summary
The International Society for Computational Biology Student Council (ISCB-SC) is composed of and led by student and postdoctoral researchers. Organization of an ISCB-SC Symposium typically takes more than half a year of preparation During this time the team is responsible for a diverse set of activities including contacting potential keynotes, fundraising, outreach communication, abstracts collection and evaluation, and social event planning. At the student council symposia, keynotes are accessible to the students during their talks and after, and they prepare lectures that touch on topics beyond their scientific work including anecdotes about their career path that led them to become successful researchers in their fields. Regardless of how much planning or how much experience the organizers or their advisors have, unforeseen situations will often arise and challenge the team’s resilience and versatility These conflicting situations can be discouraging and time consuming they present valuable learning opportunities that serve to strengthen the operational skills of the members of the team. This forced the organizers to reduce the registration fees to a much lower level compared to standard costs on this type of symposium and to dedicate a substantial proportion of the budget to provide travel fellowships
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