Benjamin Stuart Morledge-Hampton from the College of Veterinary Medicine has won Washington State University’s 2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT).
In its ninth year at WSU, 3MT is a competition for doctoral students. Each of them gets only three minutes to effectively communicate their research to a panel of judges. These judges included, among others, WSU President Kirk Schulz, First Lady Noel Schulz, and Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Chilton.
Morledge-Hampton, from the Molecular Biosciences Program, became the college’s second overall winner. Except for the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (three), no other college has won more than one.
Morledge-Hampton’s presentation was titled: “Are you smarter than a computer?” It dealt with locating and comparing specific DNA sequences that can produce persistent problems for our bodies and has the potential to lead to life-threatening diseases, like cancer.
“These tricky problems require clever solutions that combine both our knowledge of computer science and biology,” Morledge-Hampton said about his research.
As winner of the event, Morledge-Hampton receives a a travel grant for $3,000 to be applied to a research conference of his choice.
Elizabeth Thompson from WSU Vancouver won second and a $1,500 travel grant. Alexa Lambros from the College of Arts and Sciences took third place and a $500 travel grant.
On Twitter, Kirk Schulz wrote: “It was fun service as a judge for (Three Minute Thesis). Congrats to all participants, this was the best overall set of presentations I have seen in my seven years at #WSU. #GoCougs”
Chilton tweeted: “Our students are amazing!! This was a blast!”
For more information on Three Minute Thesis, including on each presentation, visit 3mt.wsu.edu.
