Virtual Events

SSA members enjoy complimentary webinars, workshops and mentoring sessions. Click each event below to learn more and register. 

Join SSA or renew your membership here. Contact membership@seismosoc.org with questions.


Networking to Find Collaborators and Build Your Career

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Tuesday, 18 November, from 11 AM-Noon Pacific

During this interactive discussion via Zoom, mentors will answer your questions and share advice about how to make new connections and identify potential collaborators in the seismological community. Come improve your networking skills and meet fellow members!

Mentors:

  • Emily Brodsky, University of California-Santa Cruz
  • Paula Figueiredo, University of Lisbon
  • Paul Friberg, Instrumental Software Technologies, Inc.
  • Victor Tsai, Brown University


Effective Scientific Presentation, Slides and Poster Design

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A five-part interactive course from January-April 2026 leading up to the SSA Annual Meeting

Polish your presentation skills with Ross Stein, renowned communications expert and earthquake scientist. Attend every session to practice and build your skills as the course progresses!

Past participants have described a supportive environment and credit Ross with helping them make major improvements to their presentations for the SSA Annual Meeting and other scientific meetings around the world.

Returning members are encouraged to take the course again, and invite colleagues! Build on your existing knowledge, see new sample presentations and gain valuable feedback from a new cohort of peers.

#1 ➤ Talk Openers 

Part A: Tuesday, 20 January, 9-10:30 AM Pacific
Part B: Thursday, 22 January, 9-10:30 AM Pacific

Learn how to engage the audience and make your argument in the first two minutes of your talk.

The opener is the most important two minutes of any talk, regardless of its length or setting. In the opener, you are planting your scientific flag and making your case. The three best approaches to engage an audience and leave a lasting impression are to tell a story, pick a fight or do a demo. Nothing else comes close.

#2 ➤ Builder Slides and Opener/Closer Slides 

Part A: Tuesday, 10 February, 9-10:30 AM Pacific
Part B: Thursday, 12 February from 9-10:30 AM Pacific

Learn how to convey your discoveries with impactful graphics in your oral presentation.

Builder slides gradually add information so the audience does not get overwhelmed. Opener/closer slides have an affinity for each other that communicate to the audience that they have returned to the beginning, but now with a deeper or new understanding.

#3 ➤ Data-Model-Interpretation Slide Sequences

Part A: Tuesday, 24 February, 9-10:30 AM Pacific
Part B: Thursday, 26 February, 9-10:30 AM Pacific

Learn how to give a lucid and convincing presentation of your key results.

This is the heart of most scientific talks, where you show data, fit it with a model, and interpret its meaning. The goal is to free the slides and presentation to show just one or a few models, focusing on the concepts, not the details. A talk is not a paper, and so generally it is not the place for uncertainty analyses or explorations of model space.

#4 ➤ Poster Design 

Part A: Tuesday, 10 March, 9-10:30 AM Pacific
Part B: Thursday, 12 March, 9-10:30 AM Pacific

Learn how to display your principal findings in ways that spark conversation and engage diverse audiences.

Making your poster a beautiful canvas with a banner title that telegraphs the principal finding, not the subject matter, is key—what you found, not what you did. Posters are reader-driven, not speaker-driven, so they need to be inviting and self-explanatory. They also need a lot of breathing room, with no boxes or figure numbers. They are a graphic rather than textual experience, so make it dramatic.

#5 ➤ Talk Closers 

Part A: Tuesday, 31 March, 9-10:30 AM Pacific
Part B: Thursday, 2 April, 9-10:30 AM Pacific

Learn how to leave a lasting impression and effectively launch into the Q&A.

You are returning the audience to where they began, but now wiser. Talks, like novels or movies, are circles—or, better yet, helixes—that close back on themselves, with new insight or perspective. 

Feedback from Prior Course Participants

“One of the most important things I learned is to shift my focus from what I did, to what I discovered and why it matters. That mindset alone has completely changed how I think about structuring my presentations.”

“Ross helped us all realize the fundamentals of good storytelling, which is not only possible but necessary in a scientific talk.”

“This was my first time doing the demo as an opening of the presentation, and the reactions I got from other participants were enough for me to understand its potential. So, thank you Ross for encouraging us to do the demo!”

About the Instructor, Ross Stein

  • Since 2014 Stanford grad class instructor, ‘Effective Scientific Presentation & Public Speaking’
  • 2022 American Geophysical Union, College of Fellows Distinguished Lecturer
  • 2021 UC Berkeley Earth & Planetary Sciences Commencement Speaker
  • 2020 Seismological Society of America/IRIS Distinguished Lecturer
  • 2018 Geological Society of America Distinguished International Lecturer
  • 2014 TEDx talk, ’Defeating Earthquakes’