Planting Inspiration: How One Chemist Uses Figures to Reach More Scientists on Social Media
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As an agriculture and horticulture PhD candidate at the Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Vadym Chibrikov enjoys using figures and illustrations to promote his research group’s work online. Here, Vadym shares his strategy and what’s next for his career.
Vadym was selected as our latest SciComm Champion after contributing illustrations to BioRender's SciComm Template Exchange. Join the program to be considered and for other great rewards.
What do you hope to achieve in your scientific career, short term and long term?
One of my short-term goals is to complete my PhD in Agriculture and Horticulture this year. We are in the final stages of preparing the paperwork for submission.
I’m also currently an intern at the Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin in Versailles, France. Learning new microscopy techniques has been an intense journey. I hope my work provides a positive impact to the knowledge of cellulose-pectin interactions.
As a part of the grant of the Ministry of Science and Education of Poland, I am involved in a developing a mobile application that provides detailed information on the nutrient composition of fruits and vegetables, including the pectin, cellulose, and fiber content, with the end-goal of facilitating consumer decision-making.
As for some long-term plans, no one knows what the future will bring – science is constantly evolving! I try to keep up with the trends and shifts in practices.
My motto is what belongs to me will always find me. Pretty philosophical, but life is too short to desperately plan something with no success.
It would be great if my future holds an Associate Professor position in Ukraine or Poland, however, it would also be great to try R&D opportunities somewhere else.
Why is effective science communication important in your career?
Nowadays, it’s crucial to capture your audience’s attention within a couple of seconds — that's the only investment of a reader you should be ready for. Simple uncluttered graphics act as great visual hooks. They make the best impressions online and in presentations.
In addition, I want my audience to know that what I share is evidence-based — including real-life data beside BioRender visuals helps provide authoritative, educational, and inspirational content.
As a consequence, effective science communication also promotes scientific networking. When people recognize my illustrations were created in BioRender, they ask me for design tips, whereas when they aren’t familiar with BioRender, they ask which tools I use for my communication!
What about ineffective scientific figures? What are the hallmarks and are there any consequences with using them?
Often, junior scientists want to cram all their study details into one figure because they spend a lot of their time drawing conclusions from their work. But usually, these details are only relevant for the person running the experiments. They are unnecessary for the figure and can lead to confusion about the message.
No matter how much time you spend making conclusions on your research, you still need to take time to make those conclusions understandable to everyone. I suggest limiting your focus on representing several crucial concepts of the research. The reader still has a chance to refer to the text of the research to find out the nuances of a methodological approach.
Tell us about your experience using BioRender.
A colleague introduced me to BioRender two years ago. Prior to this, my experience with visual science communication was limited to PowerPoint, basic vector graphics for depicting image scales and measurements, and some tools for drawing chemical structures and formulas.
BioRender took my illustrations of nanoscale processes to the next level, with user-friendly solutions that I could easily adapt for my needs.
The BioRender interface is intuitive. There’s no need to learn complex skills, and you can create sophisticated figures quickly.
The template library often gives me ideas on ways to communicate our research in terms of layout and beautiful icon options. It saves me so much time and provides inspiration for scientific masterpieces.
How have you used the figures you created to communicate your research?
BioRender helps me create impactful graphical abstracts and slide decks that easily explain complex concepts like the microstructure of biomaterials.
As the social media manager for our research group, I’m responsible for disseminating our findings online. It is something that is crucial nowadays, to let the world know about you, to gather your like-minders, and to find new partners. I use BioRender visuals to draw attention to our methodologies and biomaterials we are studying.
Despite catching our followers with a deep sense of our research in text, the need for a visual “hook” is something canonic to social media. And according to our metrics, it works perfectly, since the engagement rate of posts with graphics are two to four times higher, compared to those without. Still, you should be careful to find the line between sharing the scientific content and disclosing research details.
(Get the template here)
I often pair BioRender illustrations with visualizations of statistical analyses performed in R, Python, and MatLab to highlight the significance of our findings.
It’s a shame I didn’t discover BioRender sooner!
Do you have a scientific figure that you’re most proud of?
I’m really proud of the illustrations I created for the manuscripts we currently have in review, as well as our social media content.
I like depicting our facilities, abilities, expertise, and methodologies with BioRender. Sharing the images on social media inspires other scientists to continue in the same line of work, positions our research group as technical experts, and sparks interest for collaborations.
I particularly like including microscopy images of our biomaterials in my BioRender illustrations — I think it has become a signature feature of my illustrations!
(Get the template here)
What advice would you give to fellow scientists about effective visual communication of their research?
There are several of them, that definitely make sense to me:
- Keep it simple. Don’t crowd your images with too much text or icons. They need to be legible.
- Your figures continue your research efforts when you are not around. They are part of your scientific legacy.
- Enjoy the design process. If you need to take two or four hours building a masterpiece illustration, go ahead!
- Pour your heart into your visuals because you never know what opportunities they may attract!
Want to be like Vadym? Try BioRender free to illustrate your research today.
About the SciComm Champion
Vadym Chibrikov is a fourth year PhD candidate at the Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences. He has a background in chemistry, and his current research focuses on modelling the mechanical properties of hemicellulose-cellulose networks in plant cell wall analogues. Outside of the lab, Vadym enjoys chess, civil and transportation engineering, baking, sports, and nature.
