Public Speaking in Science

An old joke says that people's greatest fears are fist, public speaking, and second, death. So, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the coffin than behind the podium delivering the eulogy.

     Although I was strictly a researcher, after attending a few seminars and tired of sitting alone in my office, I volunteered to teach this course. I had been a toastmaster's club member while at PWRC, I had  taken a course on public speaking taught by an actor while I was at SFU, and I had tried "open mike" comedy a few times, so I figured that maybe I could help. No, I am not a good speaker; I just know a good presentation when I see one, and I am just self-critical  when it is my turn. I wanted it to be just for fun, but of course, they had to formalize it into an official course. The demand for the course turned out to be so high that years later, I found out that it had been turned into a regular course, presumably now taught by a paid instructor.

     The course was basically a series of baby steps, starting with a 30 second personal introduction in front of fellow class members,  and culminating with a 15 minute seminar presentation for the entire university.

     By the way, the guy in the background is supposed to be Cicero.