Physical sciences research poster examples

Method carries more weight here

In these disciplines a reader judges the result by the way it was measured, so the protocol block does more work than it does elsewhere. A chemistry board names the synthesis and the characterisation. A geology or soil science board names the sampling grid, the depth and the assay. An oceanography or hydrology board names the station, the instrument and the sampling interval. An astronomy board names the survey, the exposure and the filter. Each board here writes those out as labelled protocol entries rather than burying them in prose, because that is the section a specialist reads first.

Figures, and what the template decides for you

The chart kind on each board is set by its template rather than chosen per figure, so each study here was designed around the kind that actually renders, with the data shaped to suit it. That is worth knowing before you plan a board around a particular chart. Captions on these posters carry the values as text as well, which is good practice anyway, since it keeps the figure readable when the palette works against the tick labels. Where a board's chart ticks were hard to read against a dark theme, the page says so and the caption carries every number.

Sizes and printing

There are two board sizes, A0 portrait and A0 landscape, and a template is authored for one of them. The working canvas is smaller than the printed sheet, and the export is about a hundred dots per inch at A0 rather than three hundred, so treat these as conference boards rather than as artwork for a fine art printer, and check with your print shop before committing. There is no bleed, no crop marks and no CMYK conversion. Every study, institution and author here is invented, so copy the structure and replace the content.

Every page in this collection

• Astronomy research poster example

  Six months of photometry on 140 candidate variable stars, laid out as an A0 portrait showcase board with two figures set into a three column grid. The board answers the question a small observatory asks each season: what fraction of somebody else catalogue can a 0.4 metre telescope actually resolve.

• Chemistry research poster example

  Three catalyst loadings for one ester synthesis, laid out as an A0 portrait board with the procedure running across the top as a five step chain. A synthetic chemistry poster is read for the method first, so the method is the first thing under the title.

• Climate science research poster example

  Fifty years of heatwave days at twenty two weather stations, laid out as an A0 landscape billboard where the key finding occupies a full panel on the left. The finding is set large enough to read from across a hall, and the evidence for it runs down the right.

• Geology research poster example

  Three drill cores through one sandstone unit, laid out as an A0 portrait board with a coloured sidebar rail carrying the title, abstract and core access note. The rail keeps the identity of the board on the left and leaves the full right hand column for the logs and the analysis.

• Hydrology research poster example

  Runoff ratio at one catchment gauge before and after thirty per cent reforestation, laid out as a four column A0 landscape board. Each column takes one stage of the argument, so a reader moves left to right from the question to the limits without doubling back.

• Oceanography research poster example

  Kelp canopy cover at sixteen fixed reef transects over five consecutive summers, laid out as an A0 landscape board in two rows. The top row carries the method and the figure on a light ground, and the bottom row sets the results in a dark card that pulls the eye down.

• Physics research poster example

  Air damping of a torsion pendulum measured at five chamber pressures, laid out as an A0 portrait board where one hero figure takes the whole upper half. Four decay curves on one set of axes carry the result, and the columns underneath say how the fit was tested.

• Soil science research poster example

  Four years of soil organic carbon under cover crops across 24 paired paddocks, laid out as an A0 portrait board built on a before and after grid. The top half sets up the paddocks and the question, the bottom half reports what four years changed, and the figure sits between them.