Your Scientific Community

In this chapter we want to start a conversation about growing beyond your home turf. You do your science locally; it takes place within your team at your institution. But also, you are also a scientist within a larger global scientific community – a community full of peers, colleagues, and people with similar or related purpose and goal. Within this larger community, you contribute new knowledge to advance a field of work. Thus, it is important to consider ways you connect to that larger scientific community. We will address several areas of this larger scientific community in this chapter. First we will consider professional societies that provide academic stimulation and collaboration. Second, we will address contributing to science’s big picture, including reviewing grants and papers and attending conferences. Finally, we invite you to consider your role among your own circle of learners, either geographical or topical, and ways to contribute to the future of science.