Oaxaca Newton Links Workshop: Networking session (14th November 2017)

Finding new research partners can be a challenge, as it may require a step outside of both your daily commitments and comfort zone. But it's important, as meeting scientists from other disciplines can spark a new research idea or open the door to a solution to a problem that has seemed intractable.

Yaacov Deyo invented speed dating in the late nineties as a way for young singles to meet and find a partner. It didn't take long for speed dating to spread throughout the world as a revolutionary way for busy single people to meet each other without any of the stigma associated with traditional dating agencies. The original format involved men sitting along one side of a long table with the women lined up along the other, every few minutes the men moving along one space.

In this session we adapted the speed dating concept as a pathway for better communication and network building between researchers. The goal, as for the dating counterpart, was to find a good match.