useR! 2024

I am a female scientist working in cancer research. Working on my PhD project, I realized that I could not make a use of the huge data amounts I generate without proper coding skills. At that point, my journey into R began. Knowing absolutely nothing about R or any other programming language, I was trying to perform an analysis and get the final output that I aimed for. With a lot of help from our bioinformatician, we ended up with a peer-reviewed publication, summarizing our project and analysis. During these times, I often wished for guidance and support by community members who may be struggling with similar issues themselves. Unfortunately, this community did not exist in Salzburg. I continued my work and my learning process, but kept wishing for some R friends. Until finally, in January 2024, I launched a local R-Ladies Chapter in Salzburg. R-Ladies is a worldwide non-profit organization that promotes gender diversity within R Community by organizing educational and networking events. In this lighting talk, I would like to encourage everyone, in particular people of under-represented genders, to put aside their fear of coding and embrace the world of R.