The University of Georgia Graduate School hosted the 12th annual Three Minute Thesis competition in a virtual ceremony on April 5.
Better known by the acronym 3MT, the competition requires contestants to explain their thesis or dissertation topic and its significance in three minutes or less using only a single static presentation slide.
This year’s grand prize winner was Karen Gonzalez, a doctoral student in the Institute of Bioinformatics, for her presentation titled “Humans vs. Viruses.”
The runner-up was Chisom Okoli, a doctoral student in the department of nutritional sciences in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, for presenting “Equity in Wellness: Development of an eLearning Training to Improve Healthy Beverage Consumption in Black Families of Young Children.”
The people’s choice award, which is given to the contestant who receives the most votes from viewers of the competition, went to Yang Su, a graduate student in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, for his presentation of “The Bacteria Glycans: Trojan Horses in Disguise.”
The grand prize winner receives $1,000. The runner-up receives $750, and the people’s choice receives $500.
The competition is open to all currently enrolled UGA master’s and doctoral students, and this year’s 3MT drew dozens of submissions from across the university. Several preliminary heats led to the selection of 10 finalists, who submitted their presentations for a panel of judges.
The judges for the final round this year were Stuart Rayfield, vice chancellor, leadership and institutional development at the University System of Georgia; Lora Smothers, founder and director of the Joy Village School; and Neal Quirk, chair of the University of Georgia Foundation Board of Trustees and partner at Quirk & Quirk LLC.
The competition, which was developed by the University of Queensland in Australia, develops academic, presentation and research communication skills and supports the development of students’ capacities to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to an intelligent but non-specialist audience.
This year’s final was sponsored by the UGA Graduate School and the Office of Research. Click here to learn more about 3MT and to see previous competition results.
