From Mexico City

Greetings from Mexico City, where I just finished leading a 3-day workshop on scientific writing.

The workshop was organized by the biological sciences division of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa. It resembled an AuthorAID workshop.

About 100 people attended. Most were postgraduate students in biology, biotechnology, and related fields. I was impressed with the attendees. They had high English levels, asked excellent questions, and made very thoughtful comments.

For this workshop, I had a different type of co-facilitator than I do for AuthorAID workshops. Here’s the story:

A few months ago, I was contacted by a US colleague, Banalata (Bono) Sen. Bono is an editor at the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, and she is in charge of science education and outreach for the journal. She also is an AuthorAID mentor.

Bono said she hoped to give research-writing workshops similar to mine. She therefore asked to observe one of my workshops.

I had planned to give the Mexico City workshop without a co-facilitator. Then it occurred to me: Bono could both observe the workshop and be a co-facilitator. Fortunately, Bono and the workshop organizers in Mexico City liked the idea.

Like the AuthorAID workshop facilitators (who are from the country where the workshop is given), Bono added comments during lectures and helped answer questions during small-group sessions. Her experience as an editor at a journal was very useful in these regards.

Thank you, Bono. And thank you to the workshop organizers in Mexico City. Now I look forward to heading home.