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First off, I must apologize for my crazy-long absence! A few things took my attention away, including my wedding and honeymoon! I also started an internship to gain some extra experience in managing clinical trials, to get ready for a future job. You can probably imagine that doing an internship while working in a research lab made me push writing my blog to the background… Anyway, enough with excuses – I am back!
As my first story after coming back, I would like to share an accomplishment with you all that I am quite proud of. A few months ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in so-called “3-Minute Thesis” (3MT) competition at UT Southwestern, where I am working towards my PhD.
“3-Minute Thesis” competition is exactly what it sounds like – a competition to present one’s dissertation project in 3 minutes! It is meant to be easy enough to understand for non-specialist audience, yet interesting enough that experts would be captivated, too. Not an easy thing to do! However, being super enthusiastic about science communication, I decided to give it a try. Before I show you my performance though, I thought it would be fun for you to learn more about the competition itself. Aren’t you curious where the idea of the 3MT came from? I definitely was when I first heard about it. And it is a cool story, too!
The idea of organizing a competition where students would present their thesis in 3 minutes came up when the state of Queensland (in Australia) was suffering from a drought. In order for the residents of these areas to save water, the government encouraged people to not exceed 3 minutes when taking a shower. They would even suggest using a kitchen timer to make sure the residents stick to this water conversation strategy. Inspired by this timed shower idea, Dean on the University of Queensland Graduate School, Professor Alan Lawson said “hmm… Maybe a research project can also be presented in 3 minutes, just like a shower can be taken in 3 minutes”? And in this way, in 2008 the first 3MT competition was held at the University of Queensland. By now, the idea has become so popular that the competition is actually held at over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide (including UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX – of course).
When our graduate school’s Science, Policy, Education and Communication Club announced the first edition of this cool initiative, I didn’t wait long to sign up! In the first round, we were asked to record our talk and send as a video to the organizing committee. A few weeks later, I received this email:
“Congratulations! If you are receiving this email you are a 3MT finalist!!“
Dang, I was so happy!
The finals took place a couple months later, *kind of* in-person! The pandemic did not allow for us to have a big audience, but we were able to have all the finalists, organizers and judges in the room. We were accompanied by more than 130 people in audience on Zoom, too! The live streaming also meant that… We were additionally surrounded by multiple cameras and VERY intimidating bright lights for recording. What a cool, but stressful experience!
Alright, I guess I won’t keep you waiting – I received the runner-up award in this competition! Yay!
1st place: Anu Thomas, 3rd place: Amy Zwierzchowski-Zarate, 2nd place: me 🙂
Check out >>this Instagram post<< by UT Southwestern Grad School to see more pictures!
It was so fun and honestly the quality of everyone’s presentation was so high, I had no idea who will be in the top three. So I am even more excited and proud that I received this amazing recognition. If you are interested, please see the recording of my talk below. And if you open >>this link<<, you can also access the talks of other finalists. Enjoy! And definitely let me know what you think about my talk (and my project!) – either in a comment below or via social media 🙂
Martyna Scribbles 