Washington State University’s annual, fast‑paced Three Minute Thesis will rev up 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Spark Atrium, as part of the WSU Showcase week.
Prizes, in the form of travel awards for research conferences, will be $3,000 for the winner, $1,500 for second place and $500 for third.
Naomi Wallace, a doctoral student from the College of Veterinary Medicine, won last year’s contest, in which doctoral students present their research/scholarship concisely — in no more than three minutes — to a nonspecialist audience.
“3MT is one of my favorite events of Showcase week,” provost Dan Bernardo said. “In today’s society dominated by social media and threats to science‑based policymaking, it is critical for our scientists to communicate research in a form understandable to the general public. This competition provides an opportunity for our doctoral candidates to practice taking their complex research and distilling it into a concise and comprehendible message.”
Each college, or campus, that wants to send a representative to the main event, hosts its own event first. The winners from the respective events then qualify for the systemwide competition. This year, the following have already committed to participating:
- Carson College of Business
- College of Arts and Sciences
- College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
- College of Education
- College of Nursing
- College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- College of Veterinary Medicine
- Murrow College of Communication
- Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
- WSU Vancouver
Learn more at the 3MT website.
3MT began at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2008. In spring 2014, the WSU College of Education hosted the first 3MT event at WSU; in 2015, the contest expanded to all colleges.
