Three Minute Thesis® Competition at Baylor College of Medicine
In less than an hour, 15 graduate students from nine of our 16 graduate school programs summarized what took years of work. Not a small accomplishment, especially because they had to step outside of their comfort zone and present their scientific work in lay language. This was Baylor College of Medicine‘s 3MT® (Three Minute Thesis) Competition!
On Feb. 6, the event, which was sponsored by Baylor’s Career Development Center and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), joined for the first time similar annual events that are held around the world at 600 universities in more than 65 countries.
The 3MT® Competition was founded by the University of Queensland with the goal of encouraging students’ academic presentation and research communication skills. To participate in a 3MT competition, students prepare a presentation that clearly explains their research in three minutes in a language appropriate for a non-specialist audience. Competitors are allowed one PowerPoint slide, but no other resources or props.
A panel of judges assessed each presentation for comprehension, clarity and content, as well as for how participants engaged the audience, and selected first place and runner-up winners. The audience cast their votes to select the winner of the People’s Choice Award.
The winners received a certificate for their accomplishment and monetary prizes; $500 for first place, $250 for the runner-up and $250 for people’s choice.
Here are the winners of 2019:
First Place: There was a tie for first place! Ben Hall (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics) and Diana Cox (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) each won $500. Hall also received the People’s Choice Award.
Ben Hall presented “Retinal Regeneration: Can Hippo Help?” and Diana Cox enlightened the audience on “The Contribution of Nuclear CELF1 Protein to Muscle Wasting.”
Runner-up: just a half-point difference placed Lauren Miterko (Developmental Biology) and her presentation on “The Mechanisms of Deep Brain Stimulation” in second place.
Here are the videos of the winners’ presentations.
