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Summer Poster Day 2017

Overview

Summer Poster Day is your time to share the research you have been conducting at the NIH and at the same time develop your communication and networking skills. Any student (high school, college, medical/dental, or graduate) working in an intramural research group this summer may present. You may not have final results. However, you can still present background information on your project, any data you may have collected, or a discussion of the technical problems you encountered.

We encourage all current summer interns in Bethesda/Rockville, Baltimore, and Frederick to present at this event. During the session, you will spend a period of time at your poster discussing your project informally with your peers and other members of the NIH community.

Summer Poster Day 2017 is scheduled for Thursday, August 10th. It will be held in the Natcher Conference Center (Building 45) from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Registration will open June 1st, 2017 and close on July 12th at 5:00 pm EDT. When you register,  you will be asked the title of your poster.  Be certain to discusss the title with your supervisor IN ADVANCE. If you register, confirmation of participation in the event will be e-mailed by July 21st. At that time you will receive information regarding your poster board assignment (board number, session, and time) and instructions for putting up your poster. You can read more about the registration process in the 2017 Summer Handbook.

NOTE: To register for Summer Poster Day, you will need an NIH e-mail address and a MyOITE account of type "NIH Trainee/Fellow" and program "Summer Interns" on this Web site.  If you will be getting an NIH e-mail account, please wait until you have it, then create a MyOITE account and register for Poster Day.  If you know that you will NOT have an NIH e-mail account this summer, contact us for assistance with registering.

View the Summer Poster Day Printed Program for 2016.

View the COMPLETE Program for Summer Poster Day 2016 (this version includes poster titles and presenter/preceptor information).

Creating Your Poster

Summer interns participating in this event will be a assigned a bulletin board-like surface three and a half feet high and three and a half feet wide on which to display their information. Under no circumstances should your poster exceed this size.  Posters should include

  • an introduction (providing background information),
  • a brief statement of the purpose of the project,
  • a description of materials and methods used, and
  • a summary of results and conclusions.

We recommend that you begin to write and proof-read your poster several weeks in advance. You should also develop and practice a short (5 to 10 minute) verbal description of the work that you can present to colleagues who visit your poster.

Here are some other general guidelines for laying out your poster:

  • A light background with dark text is easiest to read.
  • Use one font and style to integrate all portions of your poster.
  • Make sure the poster can be read from at least 4 to 6 feet away.
  • Label graphics directly and use tables for small data sets.
  • Keep your title simple and use it to state the conclusion or focus of your study.
  • Figures, diagrams, and bullet points are better than paragraphs of text.
  • A general rule of thumb is to allow 40% of your space for graphics, 20% for text, and 40% for white space.

If you are uncertain what scientists mean when they talk about presenting a poster, please plan to attend the OITE Workshop "Creating and Presenting Dynamic Posters" scheduled for July 7th.