by Alessandra Souza (@A_SSouza) and Vanessa Loaiza (@vmloaiza1)<\/p>\n
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Fairies are magical creatures, believed to have the power of words and mystical objects. They make up the content of fairy-tales, which spark the imagination and lend people to entertain a different world of ideas and possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Today we want to share a story about one such enchanted creature, <\/span>a research-fairy<\/b>. A research-fairy has the charm of channeling new research ideas, of criticizing theories and models, and of deriving straight predictions from hypotheses. These creatures haunt conference and meeting halls, looking for symposia, oral or poster sessions, where they can avidly interact with researchers and inject on them renewed ideas for experiments, new approaches for data-analysis\/modeling, or even insightful (re-)interpretations of puzzling findings. After contact with one such mythical being, the pilgrim researcher returns home with revamped enthusiasm in the arduous process of scientific inquiry, and on its ability to make some valuable contribution to science.<\/span><\/p>\n Research-fairies are ethereal manifestations that can be channeled by generous and sharp-minded people. In the course of the years, we from #WomWoM have seen many women that embody a research fairy, perhaps because its generous spirit suits well with the profile of female researchers. This is the reason why we decided to create a wand-prize for women who embody research fairies. The prize aims to acknowledge someone who engages with her research community, freely giving constructive feedback and ideas to others. The wand prize acknowledges behavior that is widely valued but often goes unremarked. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Brief History of the Wand<\/b><\/p>\n The origins of the wand date back to a poster session during the 2016 meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Boston. In a maze of posters, you may often find yourself on the same route as a colleague. Such was the case for Vanessa Loaiza following on the tail of Candice Morey. It seemed to Vanessa that each time she approached and listened in on a discussion between Candice and the poster presenter, Candice was in the middle of giving very thoughtful advice on what was clearly the next experiment to run to clinch the series and any remaining peccadilloes of the work. What was more, Candice gave such feedback not with slightest air of antagonism, but instead with genuine interest and enthusiasm for the work and its success. At one point, Vanessa exclaimed to Candice, \u201cyou\u2019re like the good research idea fairy!\u201d Candice was touched by the sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So flattered that an esteemed colleague dubbed me a "good research idea" fairy.<\/p>\n — Dr. Candice Coker Morey (@CandiceMorey) November 19, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n