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I find then when giving a talk it feels weird / too formal / easy to stumble with my words when having to refer to a professor in the audience as "Professor Last Name", especially when their last name consists of multiple syllables.
As a student, is it acceptable to address professors by their first names, when giving a talk about my research?
Some professors are comfortable having students call them by their first names. You should wait until individual professors let you know that this is acceptable to them before you do so.
However, others are not comfortable with this. So, to be on the safe side, I believe that it is best to refer to them by their formal title and last name during a public talk. Many professors do this with their peers during public talks, even if members of the audience are their good colleagues. Plus, you won't run the risk of mistakenly refer to some professors by their first name and others by their formal name, which could be viewed as disrespectful.
I also caution to graduate students that even when they feel comfortable calling individual professors by their first name, they should refer to the same professor by their formal name when talking to others. It's usually best to err on the side of greater professionalism.
If you are referring to them rather than addressing them, I think you should say Firstname Lastname i.e. omit the title and say both names.
That is more natural than the alternatives, politer to the professor than just Firstname, and politer to the audience as it makes it very clear who you are referring to. It is polite whether or not you know the professor, and whether or not they are comfortable with being addressed by their first name.
Occasionally speakers refer to other researchers by nicknames such as Bob or Sasha, which don't even start with the same letters as the full first name. That makes it especially difficult for the audience to work out who they are talking about. Most people don't know all the standard nicknames in the world.
Here is what I believe to be the standard conventions in math in the US when referring to another researcher in a talk:
You write their full last name on the board (unless they're a collaborator and you've already written their name out and then an initial only may be fine).
If the person is not in the audience, then you say their last name only with no title. Or firstname lastname if they're on the job market.
If the person is in the audience you may instead refer to them as you would ordinarily (typically this means by first name or nickname, but in some situations this could mean using a title) and you look at them as you do so. You still write the last name on the board.
This very much depends on the circumstances: the audience and the cultural setting, but simple rules are
I like to close with an anecdote. As PhD student (looong ago), I attended an international conference in Elba (Italy), where all Italian PhD students referred to their supervisors as Professore XXX, while nobody else used titles (nobody would ever think of mentioning Professor Einstein). I found this very funny at the time, but those poor Italian students must have gone through a mighty cultural conflict.
Sometimes. (Anyone who says 'no, never' doesn't understand context.)
Things you need to consider:
Best to ask them and consider the rest of the context.
Yes in the US and no in continental Europe, but that should not be your main concern.
You main concern should be that your talk remains intelligible. So, you want to say "Jane Smith" instead of "Jane" or "Ms. Smith" or "Professor Smith" simply to be as clear as possible to the vast audience. Different people in the audience might simply mishear you. Or they might know the person only as Jane or only as Ms. Smith.
No, never.
The whole point of addressing people respectfully is to demonstrate your effort to learn and memorize their tittles and names. Otherwise, you're sending the message "I can't be bothered to spell your names right". Yes, it is easy to stumble, that's the point. You prove yourself by not stumbling.
When you're giving a talk, it's giving a talk. It's not relaxed chitchat. Giving a talk is formal, so your feeling that something seems "too formal" misguides you. It's better to come out as too formal rather than as fraternizing.
Besides, there is a simple matter that you don't have control over the audience. Some may not know who "Paul" is. Someone may record it and then watch 5 years later on another university. "Professor X Y" leaves no room for mistake.
It really depends on circumstances and audience. However contrary to some statements in the previous answer, in international conferences is normal to refer to scientists by
name surname
professor surname
surname, via their group, like in "research done in the group of xxx"; xxx is surname, but you can add name or title.
Shall I give you examples?
Me, speaking to a relatively small and "friendly" audience about my supervisor : "as name told us, recently a new..."
Me, speaking in a big session: "as professor yyy told us....."
If that professor did not tell us anything, because physically absent, but I really have to use his/her work in a technical way, of course I will say "surname showed that equation x has a solution...... " (although it is much better to show a useful reference without mentioning it, but I think this is another issue).
Referring to someone that is not a professor, is less common to ear of doctor, but possible. I would say "as name told us" or "as *name surname * told us..." in the two distinct audiences as above.
Imagine a student... If he and the supervisor are known, it is easy to say "my supervisor....".
A lot of registers are possible, those above are just indication.
If two bigs refer to each other, they will call each other by names. It can happen they are sharing the stage.
It is also related to the age difference between speaker - audience - spoken name , which again is subjective and cultural.
So be flexible.
But I would say that calling someone Professor is almost the norm.
To give a ground to my answer, I have attended hundreds of conferences and meetings worldwide.
Ps: I never noticed it in real conferences, but often the impression is that US Americans think that their way is the standard, but it is not. The fact that international conferences are hold in English has nothing, or little to be precise, to do with the manners within the conference, and even less with the cultural background of the participants.
Coincise: you can easily imagine a summer school, a session of a conference, or even a conference, all having English as official language but no American participants. I think this render the idea of what we are discussing about.
Its OK to take the first name .culture to culture the practice varies .one must observe the protocol and environment of the college, university or university .please note that person to person it varies as well.try to analysis the liknkng disliking of teacher .regards
