Zehra Köksal: My unforgettable experience presenting accessible software to 1000 forensic experts
The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program aims to promote diverse participation at events promoting open-source bioinformatics software development and open science practices in the biological research community. Zehra Köksal, a Research assistant at the University Of Copenhagen and Karolinska Institute was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the 30th Congress of the International Society for Forensic Genetics.
In September 2024, the Open Bioinformatics Foundation enabled me to attend the biennial conference for Forensic Geneticists from the biggest forensic genetics society worldwide – the International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) – that took place in Santiago de Compostela in beautiful Spain.
River in Ribadeo, Ría de Ribadeo o del Eo, separating Galicia and Asturias.
To appreciate the beauty of Spain prior to the conference, I embarked on a journey along the northern coast of Spain from Cantabria over Asturias and finally to Galicia, where the pilgrimage town Santiago de Compostela is located. My first lesson from this journey was that the north of Spain is not called “Green Spain” for no reason.
Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Around 1,000 forensic experts attended the ISFG2024 in Santiago de Compostela. One of these experts was me! Attending the ISFG2024 has been extremely valuable for me personally and professionally.
#1 Connecting with peers and experts
I was able to meet previous colleagues and collaborators spread across the globe. I reconnected with old study mates, celebrated our successes, discussed our career paths, and motivated and inspired each other. I could exchange PhD experiences with peers, meet my mentor and role models, and receive invaluable advice from them.
#2 Looking beyond everyday research
Our daily work revolves around research and academia. Thus, it was very important to look beyond this by talking to government-funded institutions and commissions to widen my horizon and get different stimulations to gain creativity.
#3 Updating on current research in the field
The scientific program was extremely stimulating, with great key notes and presentations. I particularly enjoyed the presentations on forensic microbiology and phenotyping, among many other interesting topics covered by experts.
#4 My talk
Starting my presentation on our software PhyloImpute.
This leads me to presenting my work in a 10-minute talk in front of 1000 experts. In my talk “PHYLOIMPUTE – Impute missing data on non-recombining DNA using SNP phylogeny” I presented a new software I was working on over the last months for imputing missing SNP data. The main goals of my talk were to convey the need for my tool and its algorithm in a simple and entertaining way with interesting storytelling and visual aids. Further, I wanted to make my tool accessible to people with different degrees of experience and interest in programming. Thus, I provided both a command-line tool (available via https://github.com/ZehraKoksal/PhyloImpute) and a graphical user interface (available via https://zehrakoksal.com/Y_software.html). With accessibility being a major goal, I had also made a video tutorial that I uploaded on my new webpage. Since one rarely gets an audience that big, I used this opportunity well and received great interest after my talk. Although nerve-wracking beforehand, presenting my work in front of so many experts was also a very calming and extremely rewarding experience that I will not forget so easily.
Concluding my presentation on our software PhyloImpute.
Finally, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Open Bioinformatics Foundation for supporting me on this journey. Particularly as a recent PhD graduate – a time of great changes – attending conferences like these is so important professionally and personally. Feeling supported when celebrating small successes is a big motivator. So, with this, I am encouraging everyone reading this to apply for the fellowship offered by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation!