A weekly webinar to discuss careers and research topics. These sessions combine livestreams, guest speakers, and group online chat to exchange ideas, challenge, influence, inspire, and educate. In this session, we hear Dr Russell Chander (University of New South Wales) and Soumilee Chaudhuri (Indiana University School of Medicine) together they will explore how strengthening listening and communication skills can improve collaboration, deepen impact, and build trust in every aspect of your research journey.
In dementia research, success isn’t just measured in data points and publications—it’s also found in the quality of our conversations. Whether you’re working with participants, colleagues, or the public, listening and communication are at the heart of meaningful, ethical research. But how often do we really listen—not just to respond, but to understand? And how can we communicate complex ideas clearly, compassionately, and with purpose? Today, we’ll explore how strengthening these essential skills can improve collaboration, deepen impact, and build trust in every aspect of your research journey.
Speakers
Soumilee Chaudhuri – is a 3rd year doctoral candidate in Medical Neuroscience and Bioinformatics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, researching Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) in multiethnic populations. Soumilee was raised in Kolkata, India and graduated with double degrees in Neuroscience & Biochemistry from Montana State University, Bozeman as an International Merit Scholar. She works at the intersection of multi-omics and neuroimaging to characterize Alzheimer Disease (AD) therapeutics; she was competitively awarded the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Health Equity Scholar Program (ADNI HESP) fellowship. Her interests and experiences range from neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinformatics, to science communication, public health policy and diversifying academia & research spaces. She is the recent co-founder of IMPACT IN (Initiative for Mobilizing Public health Advocacy, Care, and Translational research for Alzheimer’s Disease in Indiana).
Dr Russell Chander – is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at the University of New South Wales. His work is on clinical and neuroimaging biomarkers for vascular dementia. His top career tip… talk to as many people as you can, and not necessarily with an objective. Meet people just to gain new insights, make friends, and maybe in the future you will have opportunities and collaborations open up for you. You never know what might come up!
Programme
The format of the event is a 30 minute livestream where the speakers will each present their thoughts on this topic for 10 minutes each, the host will then ask questions and the livestream will end. The speakers will then join the online chat and interact with the audience, answering questions and giving those who attended a chance to share their thoughts on the topic.
