STAR Talks Committee Overview and Advice to Speakers

(Last updated August 2012)

Purpose: The STAR Talks Committee (STC) recommends speakers to the Spokesperson from among collaborators in good standing who have been nominated to speak at a conference by another STAR collaborator.

The STAR talks committee endeavors to follow the procedures outlined in the "STAR Policies for the Publication and Presentation of STAR Results" when recommending speakers to the Spokesperson.

http://drupal.star.bnl.gov/STAR/starnotes/public/csn0451

Criteria that are considered when recommending speakers include:

1. Match between talk topic and speaker's areas of expertise
2. Abilities as a speaker
3. Career status (Jr.or Sr., especially current employment and career transitions)
4. History of previous talks for STAR
5. Community service and physics analysis contributions to STAR
6. Institutional and geographic balance
7. Special criteria other than the above, if requested by conference organizers

The Talks Committee uses its best judgment in each case when deciding the relative importance of these criteria. After selecting a speaker, the STAR Talks Committee recommendations will be posted to the Star-Talks mailing list as soon as the speaker accepts the invitation.

Nominations may come from any member of the collaboration including self nominations and nominations from members of the STAR Talks Committee. The STAR Talks Committee will consider the number of previous STAR Talks given by a candidate when making its recommendations. Other selection criteria are listed in Table I. Colloquia/seminars at universities or labs, and contributed 10-minute APS talks are not considered relevant. Previous talks where the nominee was invited directly by the conference organizers, or which may have included only publicly accessible STAR data, or had a broader scope than just STAR results, are considered somewhat relevant by the Talks Committee, although less so than talks given as a designated representative of the STAR collaboration.

A STAR collaborator who receives a speaking invitation directly from a conference organizer is expected to inform the spokesperson and the chair of the Talks Committee if they plan to accept the invitation. If the collaborator does not intend to accept the invitation, it is recommended to refer the invitation to the Talks Committee to see if the invitation can be shared with another STAR collaborator. If a conference organizer solicits the advice of a collaborator regarding a STAR speaker, the collaborator is expected to refer the matter to the Talks Committee.

Speakers representing the STAR collaboration have specific obligations that are clearly stated in STAR Note 0451 and on the web page entitled "Policies for the Publication and Presentation of STAR Results" (noted above). Note especially bullets # 6 to 11.

The most important of these obligations include discussing the content of the talk with the working groups in a timely fashion (see CSN0451), rehearsing the talk in front of several STAR collaborators including the speaker’s council member, and posting the abstract and talk to the STAR-Talks mailing list according to the deadlines established in CSN0451.

Upon returning from the conference, speakers are required to post their talks on the “List of Presentations” web page. Input to the list can be made via the link on the STAR homepage (http://www.star.bnl.gov/input).