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Asked by anon-294560 on 1 Jun 2021.
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Jennifer Graham answered on 1 Jun 2021: last edited 1 Jun 2021 12:07 pm
Most of my friends and family call me Jen, but in science I would use my full name, Jennifer. Everyone also has to pick what their science name will be on papers, I chose to include my middle initial (N for Nadine), so I am J. N. Graham because there are soooo many J. Graham’s in the world (mainly men, John or James).
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Simon Williams answered on 2 Jun 2021:
No, I just use my usual name!
It can be a problem for some women (or occasionally men) who get married and change their name. Suddenly nobody associates them with all the research that they did before they got married – its like a new scientist appeared. Some women keep working with their old name as a result.
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Alexander Lorenz answered on 3 Jun 2021:
No, I use my real name. But you can imagine that this sometimes is a problem when you have a fairly common name and scientists can get mixed up (just think how many John Smith there might be). At my previous university there was somebody with the very same name as I at a different department, and there were a few email mix-ups.
The scientific community has realized this, and there is now a system where every scientist who publishes research also gets a unique ID number which is associated with them. This also solves the problem if you want to change your name (if you marry for example), as you will still keep your unique ID.
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