"I was really happy to be there for three days, sitting down not only with researchers but also communicators and journalists. It was a really nice experience to work with them, to understand what are the best ways to communicate with society. Not only our results but also our passion, our emotion and our vulnerability – and the fact that we researchers are also human, so people can identify with us... It also helped us to understand how we can tell stories better visually, not only in terms of ...
A few years ago a Turkish PhD fellow said to me rather wistfully: ‘I would like to have your job. It seems very nice.’ At the time I was inclined to agree with him, though I knew this was tempting fate. The question is, what did he really know of my job beyond what he’d seen on the website or at a workshop? What does a UN Head of Communications, responsible for the image and output of more than 100 international researchers (most of whom have English as a second language) do all day? The very si...