I stood beside my poster during the Scandinavian Society for Immunology meeting in Göteborg, Sweden in 1995, waiting for questions from the crowd. A few people showed great interest while others found it an utter piece of nonsense. It was my very first poster and I was very excited, even nervous. I was all set to defend or to discuss my masterpiece in case any one would pose a question directly.
As the clock ticked away, I was becoming dumbfounded. People were passing me by and some were even passing remarks on how I should have done the experiments! I felt quite invisible and this certainly did not improve my very fragile self-confidence. It was as if I did not exist! I smiled and tried to gesture that I was there to explain, until finally I realized that they could not connect me to the poster because of my name!
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