{"id":101837,"date":"2025-04-25T19:36:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T19:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=101837"},"modified":"2025-04-25T19:36:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T19:36:51","slug":"three-minute-thesis-contest-boils-down-research-communication-to-the-essentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/three-minute-thesis-contest-boils-down-research-communication-to-the-essentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-Minute Thesis contest boils down research communication to the essentials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2025 — \u201cCan you scare plants?,\u201d asked the winner of this year\u2019s Three Minute Thesis<\/a> competition to an animated audience of more than 100 spectators at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School\u2019s second annual 3MT event. In her winning presentation, Katherine Overstrum explained that based on her research, plants can indeed be scared and could grow differently when they detect the presence of something that could eat them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this year\u2019s finals, the audience in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Avedisian Hall not only learned about plants, but also about the fascinating research of 10 graduate students from different disciplines who competed to take home $2,000 in prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Katherine Overstrum, first place winner, collects her prize from Dean Brenton DeBoef.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overstrum, a master\u2019s student in biological and environmental sciences, and two 溏心vlog免费B站 Ph.D. students were recognized for their ability to communicate their research effectively and concisely. Each graduate student who entered the competition was challenged to present the content and contributions of their research in a three-minute \u201celevator pitch\u201d that attempted to capture the attention of a non-specialist audience in a vivid, cogent, jargon-free style \u2013 without reverting to academic language \u2013 while relying on a single static slide as a visual aid.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn 80,000-word Ph.D. thesis would take nine hours to present.\u00a0Your time limit \u2026 3 minutes,\u201d according to the\u00a0University of Queensland, which founded the 3MT competition in 2008.\u00a0The competition is now replicated at over 900 universities around the world. The contest cultivates students\u2019 academic, presentation, and research communication skills.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Retno Wulan Septiani, a Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, was awarded the runner up prize.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s finals in March, Overstrum captured first place and $1,000 prize. Retno Wulan Septiani, a Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, was awarded runner up ($500), and the People\u2019s Choice Award ($500 prize) went to Ololade Gbadebo, a Ph.D. candidate who is studying biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was incredibly proud of all the participants in this year\u2019s competition. Every finalist brought forward work that was not only impressive but inspiring,\u201d said 溏心vlog免费B站 President Marc Parlange, who was one of five judges of the finals. \u201cTheir research and creativity exemplify the very best of the University. Every presentation was outstanding, and this initiative truly highlights the depth of talent and innovation thriving across our graduate community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ololade Gbadebo, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, captured the People’s Choice Award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overstrum\u2019s first-place presentation presented her research into \u201cthe ecology of fear.\u201d According to Overstrum, participating in the competition has helped improve her science communication skills. \u201cI am in the process of writing up my first publication, and 3MT really helped me to nail down the narrative that I want to follow for that — of course that will include a lot more detail,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was also really fun to explain my work to people from outside of my discipline, that opportunity doesn’t come around too often for me in a formal setting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Septiani took second place for her presentation, \u201cMonitoring Carbon in the Coastal Waters Through Satellite.\u201d Her hydrological modeling research focuses on carbon concentration and rainfall data, and the effects of freshwater browning on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his presentation, Gbadebo focused on his research in medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy. Gbadebo\u2019s Ph.D. thesis — \u201cMembrane Vesicles as Courier Agents for Bacterial Communication and Antibiotic Delivery\u201d — explores the chemical ecology of marine bacteria and antimicrobial specialized metabolites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGraduate programs are the secret sauce that makes 溏心vlog免费B站 such a great place to study and work, and the Three-Minute Thesis competition was an incredible opportunity to showcase the innovative work that our graduate students do every day,\u201d said Professor of Chemistry and Graduate School Dean Brenton DeBoef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeBoef judged this year\u2019s finals, along with Parlange; Brian Krueger, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Christopher Lavan, associate vice provost for the advancement of teaching and learning; and Samantha Meenach, associate professor in the College of Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit the Three-Minute Thesis Competition page<\/a> to see the list of finalists and view the winners\u2019 presentations.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by Natalie Lundsteen, a graduate career advisor in the Graduate School.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2025 — \u201cCan you scare plants?,\u201d asked the winner of this year\u2019s Three Minute Thesis competition to an animated audience of more than 100 spectators at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School\u2019s second annual 3MT event. In her winning presentation, Katherine Overstrum explained that based on her research, plants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":101838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101842,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101837\/revisions\/101842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}