Behind the Big Night: How Big Ideas Comes to Life
Three teams of early-career scientists come together to share plant-driven solutions to real-world challenges in front of an overflow audience of nonscientists. They compete for the audience’s votes and, in the process, showcase the powerful potential of the research underway here at the Danforth Center.
That’s the big idea behind Big Ideas, the popular Conversations event that President & CEO Jim Carrington brought to life four times during his leadership at the Danforth Center. It’s entertaining, educational, and full of inspiration. But here’s the secret: just like any great show, what looks effortless on stage takes a lot of preparation. This year, we went straight to the source—our scientists—to find out what it’s really like to get ready for Big Ideas.
Rising to the Challenge
The most recent iteration of Big Ideas took place in May 2025, and featured three stellar teams:
- Sun Solutions, made up of Research Assistant Salma Adam, Research Scientist Marcus Griffiths, and Postdoctoral Associate Vanessica Jawahir. Their big idea was gene editing to allow crops to thrive in low-light conditions.
- BioQumulate, made up of Research Scientist Keely Brown, Research Scientist Anna Casto, and Data Scientist Josh Sumner. Their big idea was developing varieties of quinoa to remove toxins from contaminated soil.
- Pore Decisions, made up of Postdoctoral Associate Ally Angermeier, Advanced Bioimaging Laboratory Manager Nastia Klebanovych, and Graduate Student Sam Nuzzi. Their big idea was to stop the spread of plant viruses using a custom-designed molecule that would block viruses from moving through plants.
Scientists were nominated for the opportunity by their Principal Investigators and by Carrington. Some were excited— “I think it’s a lot of fun speaking to people who are nonscientists,” Sam said. “I mentor a lot of students, and I like talking to people who come to the table with the question, ‘why should I care?’ Those are my favorite conversations to have.”
Others, including her teammate Nastia, were more hesitant at first. “I was very nervous,” she shared. “I saw the value of the experience, but I also saw the challenges, like speaking in front of a crowd with my accent. But after talking with my teammates, I realized how many opportunities there were—to share with the audience, to develop my own public speaking skills—and that really ignited me and gave me the motivation to push through those initial fears.”
Their teammate Ally echoed the excitement and noted the confidence she had in both of her teammates: “I knew this was a unique opportunity, not the kind of thing I would be able to do in a different setting, like at a university,” she said. “And once I found out who would be on the team, I knew it would be good.”
Pictured above: Vanessica Jawahir, Salma Adam, and Marcus Griffiths of winning team Sun Solutions; Keely Brown, Josh Sumner, and Anna Casto of BioQumulate; and Sam Nuzzi, Ally Angermeier, and Nastia Klebanovych of Pore Decisions.
Brewing the Big Ideas
From the beginning, all nine scientists were dedicated to giving Big Ideas their all. They got to work early, with all three teams beginning preparations at least 10 weeks in advance and meeting for two hours or more every week. Meetings became a daily occurrence in the last few weeks leading up to the event. Everyone had extensive experience with the science behind the propositions they presented, but being selected for the competition gave them the opportunity to zoom in and focus on specific ideas that could contribute to solving major challenges and that would play to each team member’s strengths.
“We wanted to come up with a big societal challenge that we could tackle using the hyperspectral imaging technology that is unique to the Gehan Lab,” said Keely.
And the teamwork went beyond the three scientists representing BioQumulate. “Our lab mates came up with a list of ideas to help brainstorm,” Josh explained. “That was a whole day.”
“We were looking for a place where the work we do and the expertise we have intersects with a real issue,” Anna added. “And it became even more real when we realized how important the issue of pollution and waste removal is locally, too.”
Finding Their Voice
With their ideas established, the preparation for the presentations themselves began.
“When all nine of the competing team members met together, I don’t think any of us realized how intensively Jim would be involved, and we all really appreciated that,” said Salma.
“He was very approachable and took it seriously,” Vanessica added. “We could tell this was very important to him, and he made sure we would be on our top game.”
“Jim emphasized thinking of it as more of a performance than just standing up on stage reciting facts,” Salma added. “That produced a lot of communication techniques that I think most scientists aren’t used to thinking about—like using your hands, acting things out, and using humor.”
The scientists all spoke about Jim’s impact on rethinking the delivery of their presentations, sharing that he encouraged them to shift their typical approach. He helped them consider what the audience would be thinking about, how to pare down lengthy or overly technical sections, and analyze videos of great performers. His training helped them rise to the challenge of writing a script, memorizing their parts, and becoming comfortable enough to perform with a natural, relaxed, and engaging energy.
When we asked the scientists about Jim’s role, their faces lit up. He didn’t just help them polish their talks—he completely flipped the script on how they thought about presenting. Instead of defaulting to slides crammed with data, Jim nudged them to step into the audience’s shoes. What would people be curious about? Where might they get lost? How could a long, technical section be trimmed into something punchy and clear? To drive the point home, they studied videos of master performers—including one unforgettable clip of a Bruce Springsteen show that every team brought up with a grin.
“For me, the most challenging and most rewarding part of the experience was that it was not the typical scientific talk that I am used to,” Marcus shared. “The acting element was different, the imagery on screen was different…I’ve given many scientific talks in the past, but I have never practiced for anything as much as I did for this.”
Competing and Collaborating Across Teams
“We were all together from the very beginning of the process, so we had seen each other evolve. Jim built the trainings in a way that we always gave feedback to each other at the end of each session,” Nastia explained. “Everyone was very generous with their feedback. Salma even came up with a joke that we ended up incorporating.”
“By the end, all the teams had incorporated good bits or ideas from the other teams’ presentations and feedback,” Anna said. “It was cool to see everyone improve as the weeks of practice went on.”
“Sometimes I would be feeling really confident that we were going to win, and then I would watch another team present and be blown away by their performance,” Vanessica said. “Throughout the weeks of preparation, we really couldn’t tell who had the best chance of winning. Everyone was really good, and we were all trying to make each other better.”
President & CEO Jim Carrington greets the audience on the night of Big Ideas.
In the Spotlight
When performance day finally arrived, the teams were buzzing with nerves and excitement, eager to show the audience the big ideas they had poured so much energy into.
“I don’t think I felt nervous until the day before the event, when I realized the sheer number of people that would be watching,” said Salma.
All three teams spoke about feeling the pressure of representing themselves, their teams, and the Danforth Center to the best of their abilities.
“We all knew the material we were discussing, but we were sharing it in a very different way in front of a very different audience,” said Anna. “Not only nonscientists but also donors who are really invested in the work we do here at the Danforth Center. It made everything feel higher stakes.”
“I think we all felt a lot of pressure to not flub a line, especially one that others were relying on,” said Josh. “It felt like I would not only be making a fool of myself but also making fools of my friends.”
But they were far from looking foolish. In fact, in front of more than 600 viewers—an audience that overflowed our AT&T Auditorium and Langenberg Theater—they delivered such compelling ideas that the audience’s votes were nearly evenly split, coming in at 35%, 34%, and 31% between the three teams.
“Even though it was competitive, there was no animosity,” said Sam. “Ultimately, everyone did an amazing job.”
Lessons to Last a Lifetime
For the scientists, Big Ideas is far more than a single evening on stage; it’s a journey—months of preparation push them to think differently about their work, their storytelling, and themselves. And, long after they leave the stage, what stays with them is the confidence, creativity, and new perspective they gained along the way.
“I was surprised how much it connected with people,” Anna said. A lot of people came up to talk with us afterward. The public found it cool, important, exciting…I think it showed people that we are doing important work here at the Danforth Center.”
“Now that funding for scientific research is being targeted,” Keely added, “I think it was an especially important opportunity to talk to the community.”
“Speaking to a different kind of audience made me think about communication tactics I had never used before but want to continue to use going forward,” Josh said. “Things like including blank slides in your presentation when you’re making an important point so that the audience is looking at and listening to you instead of being distracted by a visual. It felt really good to spend so much time preparing for a talk.”
“I will forever remember the word ‘sprezzatura,’ said Nastia. “Jim described it as being so well-prepared that you are hardly using any cognitive energy to fish information out of your brain; instead, you can just live on stage in the moment and deliver a charismatic, effortless performance. Going forward, I will never think about any talk, presentation, even short public speaking any differently than this performance. Now this will always be in my mind. If I had to go back in time, I would do it all again. I learned so much.”
“This experience made me realize that even in a scientific seminar, you don’t have to overload the presentation with data,” Ally said.
“The audience seemed very engaged, and it felt special to have a chance to connect with nonscientists,” Salma said. “It was fun to see that they not only understood the concepts but were also excited about the ideas.”
“Getting to spend that one-on-one time with Jim was really special,” Vanessica said. “He has a lot of wisdom to share about talking with different groups of people, and getting to hear his strategies and input was really unique. I think this experience gave me the skills and permission to act more like myself when giving a talk in the future.”
“It was quite fun to think about simple things to make the talk more engaging; scientists don’t normally think to incorporate that,” Marcus said. “Things like including little gestures, having a ‘through line’ throughout the whole talk, or organizing it more like a story.”
“A big takeaway for me is to take risks when you’re trying to connect with people,” Salma said. “We had a few jokes about Vanessica being a plant murderer. We really considered whether it was a good idea to joke about death multiple times, but it was worth the risk to grab someone’s attention and keep them engaged by making them laugh.”
“It absolutely melted my heart that Executive Assistant Allison Brown was always bringing us snacks,” said Nastia. “She had everything working like a Swiss clock. I was immensely grateful to everyone who helped us—the other competing teams, our events team, our AV team…it really reflected what a humble, humane bunch we all are—that it was not just work; we can also take care of each other.”
In short, Big Ideas took a staggering amount of hard work, but those who rose to the challenge said that the satisfaction and growth were well worth the time and effort. Perhaps Anna summed up best: “This is the best group project I’ve ever done,” she said.