Bringing Aloha into Science
By: Dr. Brittany Kamai, California Institute of Technology Fellow
The future of science feels like Hawai’i
I grew up in the warmth of the islands felt from both the sunshine and our people. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this beautiful, multi-cultural, rainforest welcomes visitors from every part of the world. As I became a physicist, I saw that science shares this global attraction. However, the practices of interacting with others is much more frigid. For some, this inhibits their ability to bring their best selves to the problem-solving table. Hawai’i can serve as a model for how to value each person, which ultimately will enrich and expand our human knowledge even further. My vision for the future is one where we shift our current scientific culture into one that embodies the aloha spirit.
I am the third Native Hawaiian to ever earn a PhD in physics.
I earned my advanced degrees far away from home in both the physical location of the institutions and the culture of academia itself. Interactions with people were very different and it took me a while to learn how to bring aloha in to science. In academia, there is this social hierarchy of who “deserves respect”. At the top of this pyramid are the senior tenured professors while the next layers of stratification are the junior professors, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduate students and K-12.
The wide base of this pyramid is every other person who is not an academic (nor earned any advanced degrees). People worship extraordinarily rude professors (because they won some fancy award or wrote some book) however they rarely greet or thank our cleaning staff. Colloquialisms such as ‘That is boring and tedious, let’s turn in to an undergraduate project’ or ‘The public would never understand this concept as it’s too difficult’ or ‘If Professor B thinks so then it must be absolutely correct’ are common place. I found these statements and corresponding actions to be stifling.
In Hawai’i, our interactions are based on a foundational sense of respect for everyone.
The aloha spirit is the caring practice of interacting with every person as though they are part of your family. In this spirit, it is normal to strike up a conversation with anyone and share a little about your life. Everyone, from the checkout person to the flight attendant to a fire fighter, would be able to engage in a short conversation about something going on with themselves. We would “talk story” for a little while and go on with our day. This interaction is a little deeper than ‘how the weather is’ since the weather doesn’t change much when you live close to the equator. We would share a funny story, a good deal we got, or what we do at work. Importantly, we would listen to each other and ensure that the other person understood what we were saying — no matter who they are.
Without building connections, we limit where our ideas can go.
As scientists, our job is based around building connections. We learn new technical skills to connect with the large questions we want to answer. We share our ideas with colleagues to connect our thoughts with the larger community. We learn methodologies from different fields in hopes to connect with ours. When I interact with new people, I am challenged to find new ways to connect what I am doing with something they would be able to relate to.
Interactions with new people are foundational to how I practice science.
Building analogies has become one of my superhero powers as a scientist. I have developed new connections during conversations at a bus stop, which are the exact ones I use to talk with my colleagues over complicated physics concepts. This practice of quick analogy building has come in handy when I am giving presentations and colleagues from different fields need help further understanding my work. Not only does the aloha spirit engage more people with science, it strengthens the foundation of the science that we do.
I believe that everyone has the capability of bring aloha in to their science.
You do not need to travel to Hawaii to start building a place of aloha for everyone. Here are some tips that I have and encourage each of you to try practice these.
Greet everyone as family.
Smile and say hello. This includes the people in the hallways, others on the train, someone helping you at the grocery store.
Genuinely thank your support staff.
Without your cleaning staff and administrators, you would have a lot more on your plate so thank them for helping.
Introduce yourself to people you see in your daily life.
There may be people you have never said hi to before in your hallways. Go ahead and start now.
Practice sharing a tiny nugget of your work to an entirely new person.
It doesn’t have to be everyone every single day. Start with one thing in one minute with one person on one day. You will be surprised at how curious they are and come up with new analogies about your work that you would have never thought of.
Talk with people, not at them.
Often in science we talk at people rather than engaging with them. Practice being attentive to the other person to gain clues about whether they are understanding and relating. If not, ask them where they may be stuck.
Treat everyone in your research group as peers.
I call everyone that I work with colleagues regardless of the number of degrees they have earned. Do you?
Eradicate presumptuous statements about people’s starting points.
Adding statements such as “As you all know from grade school/freshman/graduate courses, …” assumes that people have the exact same background or experiences as you do, and ends up distracting people from the point you are trying to make. Ask yourself, do I need to say this? Try going ahead without it.
Give everyone space to speak in your meetings.
Ensure that each person has a little time to discuss what they have been thinking. This will help create a dynamic where each person is engaged and feels respected. And if you speak up often, be attentive to others who may not.
Head outside more for meetings.
Walking meetings can be helpful for breaking down social barriers and the sunshine will catalyze creativity. You can do this even when there is snow outside.
Add plants to your indoor meeting spaces.
This tiny act makes the place more inviting. Look up some plants that will work best in your area. Trust me there are some easy to maintain ones out there.
I look forward to experiencing or hearing about how you have brought these practices into your institution. Good luck on your journey towards bringing aloha into your science.
Aloha a hui hou (Until we meet again)
Brittany Kamai is a California Institute of Technology Fellow, where she uses her PhD in astrophysics to develop instrumentation that will enhance our fundamental understanding of the universe. Her research lies directly on the interface between astrophysics theory and instrumentation. Currently, she is pushing technology to the extremes within the LIGO collaboration by testing novel ideas to improve the sensitivity of future gravitational wave detectors. Her long term vision is to build laboratory tests of quantum gravity to gain clues about the perplexing nature of dark energy. She firmly believes that the only way we can solve these complex problems is if we create structural changes that will enable many different minds to work together. You can follow her on Twitter @cosmojellyfish.
