@nprofile1q... Oh absolutely — let me clear up what I think is a misunderstanding, first of all. When I mentioned "someone senior" I meant full professor, eminent in the field, wasn't supposed to be in the room by any measure. And by "debatable intent" I mean the questions could be viewed as criticisms, not actually questions.
With that out of the way, yes, this early career programming is deliberate about this wording because we've had that issue raised and tried to address it. In practice the "young scientists" imagery sticks, and if you have any suggestions to counter, I'm all ears!