Breaking it down: graduate students present at annual Three Minute Thesis competition
“Short” and “simple” are rarely used to describe graduate student dissertations. But each year, The Ohio State University Graduate School challenges students to make the impossible happen — cut down their research to a three-minute explanation in layman’s terms.
The Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT®) originated in Queensland, Australia in 2008. Queensland residents were encouraged to conserve water usage and limit their shower to three minutes as the state experienced an extreme drought. While winding his bathroom egg-timer to that three-minute tick mark, the dean of the University of Queensland Graduate School, Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, asked: what else can we do in three minutes?
Since Dr. Lawson’s introduction of the annual thesis competition, it has been taken up by over 600 universities around the world. Graduate school events like 3MT® offer students a chance to expand their network and share their research findings with interdisciplinary peers.
The College of Pharmacy hosted the college 3MT® competition on January 18, 2024. The students who received the top-three scores included:
1. Isaac Karel
Isaac Karel, a second-year PhD student in Dr. Navjot Pabla’s Lab presenting on acute kidney injury
2. Jack Strommat
Jack Stromatt, a third-year PhD student in Dr. Sharyn Baker’s Lab presenting on the role of genetic variation in treatment response.
Jack's Thesis Presentation
3. Lillian Cool
Lillian Cool, a fourth-year PhD student in Dr. Blake Peterson’s Lab presenting investigation of biological targets through fluorescence-based and imaging-based methods.
After receiving first place at the college competition, Karel competed in the university-wide 3MT event, taking second place.
“As the first person in my family to go into the world of research, simplifying the explanation of my work was an opportunity to successfully convey what I do to them,” Karel said. “I even got to rehearse the presentation with my grandparents over Facetime.”
