The Three Minute Thesis (3MT™) is a national research communication competition celebrating exciting research by PhD research students. Students have three minutes to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance.
The competition challenges students to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries so these can be presented concisely to a non-scientific audience.
Hudson Institute PhD students have been holding their Centre 3MT competitions via zoom. Last Wednesday 20 May a judging panel, including Prof Jock Findlay, A/Prof Peter Stanton, Dr Tracey Edgell, Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna and Ann Scott, announced this year’s winners were
- Ruby Oberin (senior category), ‘Grandma’s Cookbook’ (supervisor A/Prof Patrick Western, Head, Germ Cell Development and Epigenetics)
- Penny Whiley (junior category),’Bye, bye baby! Understanding causes of male infertility’. (supervisor Prof Kate Loveland, Head, Testis Development and Germ Cell Biology and Centre Head.)
Runners-up who are supervised by A/Prof Patrick Western
- Ellen Jarred (senior category), ‘Same genes, different fates’
- Rheannon Blucher (junior category), ‘Decisions, decisions’.
Judge Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna commented “Judging this year’s 3MT was such a tough task because all the presentations were of such high quality! It was wonderful to see how enthusiastic each student was about their PhD project. I really enjoyed the analogies used to explain high-level research in lay terms. The organising team, the meeting chair and the presenters did an amazing job conducting this zoom-based 3MT event!”
With such a large virtual audience and support group from the Centre team zooming in for the occasion, those attending were asked to mute their microphones and turn off their camera to ensure the event ran smoothly. A/Prof Patrick Western said the audience had never been so quiet!
Congratulations to all Centre for Reproductive Health students who participated in this year’s 3MT competition, and best of luck to Ruby, Ellen and Penny in the next round.
What is the Three Minute Thesis?
Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition which challenges higher degree by research students to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance in just three minutes in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
