Biological sciences graduate student Kevin Oyale Chiteri explains his thesis to a panel of judges.
Students vie for prizes in Three-Minute Thesis Competition
“It felt like it went really fast,” said a slightly breathless Nikolai Tcyrulnikov. “I know it was the three minutes, but when I was up there it seemed to go by much faster than that.”
Tcyrulnikov, a doctoral student in photochemical sciences, had taken the challenge of attempting to explain his thesis topic, “Pyridinium Salts: From Photoinduced Through-Space Electron Delocalization to Novel Spontaneous Reactions Causing Thermal DNA,” to a lay audience — in three minutes. He was one of 17 graduate students who participated Feb. 7 in BGSU’s first-ever Three-Minute Dissertation Competition, or 3MT®.
Not only did they have a mere three minutes, the competitors could use just a single, static slide, with no rap, music, poetry, costumes or other props. They brought energy, and sometimes humor, to their pithy talks, which were judged by a panel of faculty and administrators. Audience members voted for the People’s Choice Award.
Developed by The University of Queensland, the fast-paced competition “hones students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. For some, it helps to develop an ‘elevator speech’ for their research,” according to the Graduate College. Cash prizes were given to the first-, second- and third-place winners, along with a People’s Choice Award.
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