Latest / Speak In Flow / Unveiling the Cosmos: Dr. Hasmik Andreasyan on Astrophysics and Communication

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Unveiling the Cosmos: Dr. Hasmik Andreasyan on Astrophysics and Communication · Speak In Flow

• 0:02
  Melinda Lee: Welcome, dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast, where we dive into strategies to help you and your team unleash the power of their voice achieve maximum potential and flow.
• 0:14
  Melinda Lee: Today we have an astrophysicist doctor has meek Andreason. She's a researcher astrophysicist and also a project manager in it. Welcome hasmek.
• 0:28
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation.
• 0:31
  Melinda Lee: Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad you're here. You're our 1st astrophysicist on the podcast. I'm so excited to dive in. I wanna know what makes you passionate about this field? It's fascinating. And so, from your perspective, what are you getting at? What are you finding.
• 0:48
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I mean, it's a astrophyses. i i i it's a astronomy. So it's it can be just simply it can be not interesting. And I I could not be not passionate about that. Actually. I never met someone who is like who's not interested in the stars in the night sky, etc.
• 1:13
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So at some level, yeah, yeah.
• 1:15
  Melinda Lee: Projects? Are you doing? What projects are you researching.
• 1:19
  Hasmik Andreasyan: My topic is eruptive stars.
• 1:22
  Melinda Lee: Huh!
• 1:23
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, and actually like my stories a little bit different, because I grew up actually in observatory. So it was kind of natural environment for me.
• 1:39
  Melinda Lee: Oh! Is this in Armenia?
• 1:41
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's, it's yeah. It's back. Yeah.
• 1:43
  Melinda Lee: Got it. And yeah, and you just recently moved here to California about 6 months.
• 1:47
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So you're all welcome.
• 1:49
  Melinda Lee: So you're in Armenia, and you're in the observatory. That's your natural environment.
• 1:54
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, yeah, i i i that's my like, the the place that I grew up. My friends, my parents, etc. So
• 2:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I. Just at some point I decided that it should be not only my passion for childhood, but it also can be my profession. And I can do my career in this field, because it's really was very interesting for me.
• 2:25
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And also, as I already know, the wh. What I should expect from this career path. Because I was in this environment.
• 2:38
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I decided that, yeah, that yeah, I should. I should try myself. And I'm very happy that in my university years I choose, like the Astro physics.
• 2:51
  Melinda Lee: And tell me about that project that you're talking about, or your focus in the stars. What part of that.
• 2:56
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, yeah, I ed for my Phd tells this. I, I was thinking like for a very long period. What topic should I take for me for the Phd. I don't want it. It just be like continuation of our works. But I wanted to have some connection with this
• 3:19
  Hasmik Andreasyan: a topic and at some point when we were doing our observations in in the observatory using our 2.6 meter telescope.
• 3:31
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's 1 of the biggest observatories in the like telescopes in the area. And we were doing observations. And just randomly, we found, like one star was undergone. The eruption
• 3:50
  Hasmik Andreasyan: like it brightens for 5 magnitudes. It means like almost 100 times
• 3:58
  Hasmik Andreasyan: just in front of our eyes.
• 4:01
  Melinda Lee: Wow!
• 4:02
  Melinda Lee: O.
• 4:03
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Very excited before that I didn't work on this field of eruptive, variable stars. So it was new. And when I did this observation, I remember that was September of 2,015
• 4:20
  Hasmik Andreasyan: A. And we came back to the office. We redacted quickly, and as we find out that it's really brightened up, I said, Well, I am going to take this star as a like in as a base of Mitzis.
• 4:39
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and we started to do like observations of like every month, every 2 months, etc. We started to follow the start.
• 4:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Behavior. And at the end we found that that this is a like very rare phenomena it's called 4 Yoni type stars, and our star is evolve. And now it's called like Floriani type star. And this is the type of the stars that
• 5:14
  Hasmik Andreasyan: we know very few of them like 15 to 20
• 5:21
  Hasmik Andreasyan: like. There are
• 5:22
  Hasmik Andreasyan: thousands, millions, trillion stars, and.
• 5:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Only few of them. We can call for you only type stars, and one of them was just in front of my eyes.
• 5:37
  Hasmik Andreasyan: who was in the team who, like discovered this.
• 5:41
  Melinda Lee: And.
• 5:42
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Or already. Of course, it's published, and
• 5:46
  Hasmik Andreasyan: our colleagues also in America and worldwide. They are also studying this object, and they also confirming that our discovery was right, because, you know this type of stars, they needs to be followed for a long period of time, and we followed them. Almost 5 6 years
• 6:09
  Hasmik Andreasyan: to to have this result, to have this final result.
• 6:13
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And this is the yeah. This is the top part of the research. When you should, you should work for long period in order to have good results
• 6:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: which you can show, and tell the world.
• 6:29
  Melinda Lee: Right? Right? So what was the effective? Like a lot of communication, appropriate accurate communication? Was happening at that time? Can you tell me more about how did commute, if if communication helped support you and getting a good result.
• 6:47
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, yeah, actually, a lot of people think that in research, in science, you are usually working like for yourself and alone. But it's not like this. So it's fully collaborative work.
• 7:03
  Hasmik Andreasyan: especially astrophysics.
• 7:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So in real, my astrophysics communication is very crucial. As in all the fields, because this can lead like
• 7:20
  Hasmik Andreasyan: if we do not have this communication and the effectiveness
• 7:27
  Hasmik Andreasyan: of our meetings.
• 7:30
  Hasmik Andreasyan: We could have a lot of misunderstandings and errors, and at the end this could lead like in the process of discovery. This could lead a lot of problems
• 7:42
  Hasmik Andreasyan: in astrophysics. It's all about time. And if you not discover something on time, someone else could do that. And at the end it's going to be, not your study, but it. It will be published on someone else. Names.
• 8:01
  Melinda Lee: Yes, yes. So what? What communication methods use to ensure that you had good, effective.
• 8:09
  Hasmik Andreasyan: For example, in my team, as we worked in the same observatory we had daily meetings.
• 8:17
  Hasmik Andreasyan: That was our like everyday schedule.
• 8:22
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 8:23
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So in the mornings we always had, like 15 min of meetings with all our team members who were 4 people and everyone just very quickly shared. What's what's like progress they had during the day.
• 8:42
  Melinda Lee: And it.
• 8:43
  Hasmik Andreasyan: What they are going to do. After due to this we were managed to
• 8:50
  Hasmik Andreasyan: like, do our studies more quicker
• 8:53
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and be effective.
• 8:55
  Melinda Lee: Yes. And what about presenting.
• 8:59
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's it's.
• 9:00
  Melinda Lee: And help.
• 9:00
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, it's it's very important thing for for science
• 9:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: cause. With your presentation you can make more valuable.
• 9:13
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:14
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Can just destroy. Like very good study or discovery, just because you presented it wrong.
• 9:22
  Melinda Lee: Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So so you're able to present it. Do you think that you did an effective job presenting sounded like it.
• 9:32
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I i i am. I am still continue to study this field because it's it's continuous, proper, like process.
• 9:42
  Melinda Lee: Nick.
• 9:42
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I remember when I was in university. I had this problem of presentations. Because I did a good job but at the end. No one understand, and no one could value your presentation. If you are not talking properly.
• 10:02
  Melinda Lee: Not.
• 10:03
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Showing your like work properly very good tools is to use a lot of crafts. And in this case, because these help, like from visual perspective, to show people, and to make them more easy to understand your work.
• 10:25
  Melinda Lee: Right? Right? Right? So using visual using different ways to make sure that they're getting the accurate information, especially in this field, you want it be accurate
• 10:36
  Melinda Lee: timely. You don't want to rush through it like you said, but also there's a sense of urgency so that somebody else doesn't publish
• 10:44
  Melinda Lee: the data.
• 10:46
  Hasmik Andreasyan: But you you have, to be sure, for your data also.
• 10:50
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 10:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: As you said, you have to.
• 10:53
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 10:54
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Care of the data. And this is also part of the communication, because you should be able to talk with your team members and
• 11:04
  Hasmik Andreasyan: show them present them real your
• 11:09
  Hasmik Andreasyan: like, what you've done.
• 11:12
  Hasmik Andreasyan: your results.
• 11:13
  Hasmik Andreasyan: They should understand
• 11:15
  Hasmik Andreasyan: really what you are talking about.
• 11:18
  Melinda Lee: Tree.
• 11:18
  Hasmik Andreasyan: You should be on the same page. That's very important.
• 11:22
  Melinda Lee: Yeah. How do you know when people are on the same page with you?
• 11:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I always, always ask a feedback.
• 11:31
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Due to this. I understand, if what I said is.
• 11:35
  Melinda Lee: Brain.
• 11:36
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Finally, like person understands the meaning of that. Or maybe they went to another direction. That was very one of my problems. Be in the past because
• 11:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I I always thought that what I talk.
• 11:55
  Melinda Lee: Aha!
• 11:56
  Hasmik Andreasyan: What I understand, or what I already imagined. Everyone else in the room also, like.
• 12:04
  Hasmik Andreasyan: understand quickly. And they are on the same page. But that's not like this, and you should
• 12:14
  Hasmik Andreasyan: be sure that
• 12:16
  Hasmik Andreasyan: you are in the same page, and you are in the same situation, and everyone's understands like your main goal, and where? Where you are going.
• 12:28
  Melinda Lee: Right, right, right.
• 12:30
  Hasmik Andreasyan: That should be done in order to.
• 12:33
  Hasmik Andreasyan: in order to have good results.
• 12:38
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, as a leader of a project or leader of research or leader of in any field like you mentioned. Make sure you understand where people are going. Make sure you're getting understand that they are getting feedback from them so that they understand what you're saying. We can't assume that just because we're seeing something that they're getting it. Exactly. What we imagine is what you're saying. So really, being short to do that.
• 13:03
  Hasmik Andreasyan: We are different. We have.
• 13:05
  Melinda Lee: Correct.
• 13:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Billings, and.
• 13:07
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 13:08
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Person in front of you do not have to. Like.
• 13:12
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I understand you're just.
• 13:15
  Melinda Lee: Exactly, exactly.
• 13:18
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Shirts
• 13:18
  Hasmik Andreasyan: really talk.
• 13:21
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, so it sounds like it was a successful. So you said that the result is successful.
• 13:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, that that was successful, and that actually became like became one of the main like stones for beginning of my
• 13:39
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Phd classes. Of course it's a long story, and it's a long time that you should work on it, etc. Phds. For 4, 5 years. Usually people are doing but it was the main point.
• 13:58
  Hasmik Andreasyan: We started to work, and the team also will help me a lot. So it's it's a Phd. Degree. But it's not a ball, only about yourself.
• 14:10
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Very important.
• 14:12
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Our case like, it's a supervisor. It's team members and all are working on the same project, understanding that you have the same vision and goals.
• 14:27
  Melinda Lee: Right? Oh, congratulations. So I also wonder you talked about the the positive impacts of effective communication on this team bringing everybody along. It's not just about you ensuring that all the accurate information is presented, and also knowing that everybody's listening correctly, what what about any ineffective communication
• 14:49
  Melinda Lee: moments that you've had can you share with us those times where you felt like the team had ineffective communication? And what is the impact? And it doesn't have to be about this project. But in your career.
• 15:02
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, yeah. A. As I said, I am working now on 2 fields.
• 15:08
  Melinda Lee: Huh!
• 15:09
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, in project management, where? You talk. And in your environment, you can have very different people, because it's not only scientifical environment, but indifference with for example, astrophysics where people are have the same. Let's say values because they all are scientists.
• 15:36
  Hasmik Andreasyan: You have, like you have developers that ha! They have their own world.
• 15:44
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Like 2 ways that they they are working on their topic. So there, people are very diverse.
• 15:52
  Hasmik Andreasyan: You really should be able to connect all of them.
• 15:56
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 15:57
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And this is very problematic can be sometimes.
• 16:04
  Hasmik Andreasyan: There were times that, for example.
• 16:07
  Hasmik Andreasyan: we had timelines.
• 16:10
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and at the end we couldn't follow them because maybe people were not coming for the meetings.
• 16:19
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and they didn't really realize that it's very important.
• 16:24
  Melinda Lee: Sorry.
• 16:24
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Should go, and you should explain that team meetings are very important.
• 16:32
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Then we started to implement also this.
• 16:36
  Hasmik Andreasyan: the
• 16:37
  Hasmik Andreasyan: clear documentations, because this is also very helpful. And this is also a point because people could forget sometimes what you were talking during the meetings.
• 16:51
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 16:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: This calls also time.
• 16:53
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So in my career, we met a lot of problems with timelines usually.
• 17:03
  Melinda Lee: Because people are not sure what are the priorities.
• 17:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, because people are not sure of the priorities. They didn't realize, like their responsibilities.
• 17:16
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So this is also work that you should done, and you should, like. Everyone in the team should
• 17:24
  Hasmik Andreasyan: clearly understand what are their responsibilities.
• 17:28
  Hasmik Andreasyan: What are their goals? And that's everything that you are working on is
• 17:34
  Hasmik Andreasyan: not only your project, it's a whole team project.
• 17:38
  Melinda Lee: Right, right.
• 17:39
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Everyone is very important and valued.
• 17:43
  Melinda Lee: Right? Or is there a project that you're working on? In terms of? For as a project manager that you're excited about.
• 17:50
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah. Yeah. I I was lucky to find another position as a project manager after my Phd in it. Sphere. And the project was again connected with astronomy. So it all also was very excite excitement, like reasons for reason, for excitement for me.
• 18:16
  Hasmik Andreasyan: But there are. There were not only astronomers in the group. There were 1st developers another team members.
• 18:26
  Melinda Lee: Aye.
• 18:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Project. Yeah, members, etc,
• 18:31
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And then we had also this international team.
• 18:35
  Hasmik Andreasyan: because the project were international. And we had, of course, we have to use this communication tools like zoom, and all all the other platforms. And
• 18:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: this is also change the rules of communication, you know, because one thing is when you are all in the same room, when you are in different countries, and.
• 19:05
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 19:06
  Hasmik Andreasyan: This is also not very easy.
• 19:09
  Melinda Lee: What? Yeah, what are your suggestions for communicating
• 19:13
  Melinda Lee: in Zoom to different countries? International.
• 19:17
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, we we we have to be very really careful and very strict concerning the communication. When you are working from different countries via it could be via zoom or other tools, you know.
• 19:32
  Melinda Lee: How do you prepare? How do you prepare?
• 19:34
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, this should be very clear that everyone should have like their not.
• 19:42
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Should clearly be prepared for this meeting. We usually had a once a week meeting for 1 h, and we tried to be in this limit of 1 h, because, you know, when you are out of time or you can make some some excuses.
• 20:05
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's not very productive, because people are really do not take. Sometimes it's serious.
• 20:13
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So we were using, of course, tools like zoom Microsoft team slack. All this kind of tools that is possible to use also for project management there, like specifically softwares like zoom jira, etc, that every I think every spare has its own.
• 20:39
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So you should really keep going this meetings. You should have your meeting minutes
• 20:46
  Hasmik Andreasyan: archived in somewhere, so everyone can just open and take a quick look if they forgot something. Everyone should be present at the team meetings, everyone without excuses, if if it's not like. They're very, very urgent, you know.
• 21:05
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So once a week
• 21:07
  Hasmik Andreasyan: at least we were doing because our team was. It's mainly based on the project, you know. You should understand like how quick you need to set up these meetings.
• 21:19
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And then we have, like every 2, 3 days.
• 21:24
  Hasmik Andreasyan: one on one meetings with the other members.
• 21:29
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's. This also helps. If if we have
• 21:33
  Hasmik Andreasyan: difficulties or we have questions, and it concerns just one person.
• 21:39
  Melinda Lee: Right, do you? Have you ever experienced like? If you say one word, it may mean something else in another culture. How do you prepare for that, or or maybe even gestures, like some cultures like eye contact, some others don't like eye contact. How do you prepare for all those type of.
• 21:58
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah.
• 21:59
  Melinda Lee: Do not.
• 22:00
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I that. That's a very good question, and that's
• 22:05
  Hasmik Andreasyan: That's the thing that you should maybe study a little bit in order to get prepared for meeting with the person, because really cultures are different and
• 22:20
  Hasmik Andreasyan: appreciate that and be prepared.
• 22:23
  Hasmik Andreasyan: I can tell you one story. One of my colleagues. So we're from Bulgaria, and there, like when you say yes.
• 22:37
  Melinda Lee: Hmm.
• 22:37
  Hasmik Andreasyan: It's not like this. It's like this.
• 22:41
  Melinda Lee: Interesting.
• 22:42
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And no, it's like this.
• 22:46
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So for a long time I didn't realize that.
• 22:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And when I was talking something, and they were doing like this.
• 22:56
  Melinda Lee: I am a.
• 22:58
  Hasmik Andreasyan: What's what I'm talking. Maybe I'm not correct, or maybe we we are not understand each other. And then I understand that you should study the culture in order to be able to communicate really.
• 23:13
  Melinda Lee: Right. I can see how that is so confusing.
• 23:16
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah.
• 23:17
  Melinda Lee: You know how to adjust that? Because I'm so used to saying Yes.
• 23:21
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Hello!
• 23:22
  Melinda Lee: Yes, shaking my hand. No back side to side is yes.
• 23:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah.
• 23:26
  Melinda Lee: Oh, that's really interesting. That's good to know from Bulgaria. Yeah. So like, I agree with you, really taking time to study where someone is from what their culture is, what the natural, what is appropriate gestures and what is not like. We can't assume that
• 23:43
  Melinda Lee: what our investors are. They're gonna be the same for them. So.
• 23:47
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And people usually think that it's only like words, but.
• 23:50
  Melinda Lee: Words, no.
• 23:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Is also hands. It's face.
• 23:55
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 23:55
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Several. So everything. The gestures are very important.
• 24:00
  Melinda Lee: It's very important. It's very important. In fact, I'm actually doing a podcast. Episode on this, too. So really appreciate that you're bringing it up. Yes, oh, thank you so much, Hasni. It was really powerful. I really appreciate. Thank you for your research and
• 24:16
  Melinda Lee: sharing your experience and doing that, and also talking about how the team effective communication has helped you bring out the research that you want the data that you want in an accurate factual, informational way to support our society. And so really, I'm happy that you're in California and also jumped on this podcast to talk about the differences between effective communication, and not so.
• 24:42
  Melinda Lee: Thank you so much before we jump off and dive off. I'd like to ask like all the guests that I asked, What is your one leadership, golden takeaway, that you want the audience to remember.
• 24:54
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Keeping up with the with our topic. I would really want to mention that effective communication like effective negotiation. It's a win win process.
• 25:09
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So like 2 parts of it, should at at the end of this communication, should win, they should have that they should share the profit of the communication.
• 25:24
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 25:26
  Hasmik Andreasyan: And 2 parts should understand that and be more, let's say, active listeners
• 25:35
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and helpful.
• 25:37
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and lead this
• 25:41
  Hasmik Andreasyan: projects to their
• 25:44
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and
• 25:46
  Hasmik Andreasyan: in time.
• 25:48
  Hasmik Andreasyan: and
• 25:49
  Hasmik Andreasyan: with the good results.
• 25:51
  Hasmik Andreasyan: So win-win is always a good.
• 25:55
  Melinda Lee: I love that I love that I love that especially nowadays with our new
• 26:00
  Melinda Lee: our election coming up. It sounds like there's a lot of people with different opinions. And so I really hope that even after the election we can all come together as one country, one voice, to to solve our complex problems in the world and going like, what has Mika saying that we all look at our problems with a win win attitude and active listening and boost our creativity to to move in the right positive direction.
• 26:28
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:29
  Melinda Lee: Thank you so much. Thanks for coming.
• 26:32
  Melinda Lee: And, dear listeners, I really appreciate thanks so much for being here, and until next time I'm your sister and flow. May prosperity flow to you through you for a better future.
• 26:45
  Melinda Lee: Thank you, Hazmi.
• 26:47
  Hasmik Andreasyan: Thank you very much. Bye.
• 26:49
  Melinda Lee: Aye!