What is 3MT?
The Three Minute Thesis Competition is an academic competition that assists graduate students to develop effective presentation and communication skills. Participants have just three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience.
Why 3MT?
- Supports the development of candidate’s capacity to communicate complex ideas successfully to a range of non-specialist audiences
- The experience can help students ‘crystalize’ thoughts about their thesis and how they communicate their research
- Opportunity for candidates to network both within Faculties and across UBC
- Worthwhile prizes – UBC Finalist receive $1500, $750, and $300 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place
UBC Semi-Finals
The 16 top judged presenters from across UBC will be presenting their 3 Minute Thesis on APRIL 27th. The Semi-Final aims to narrow down the 16 semi-finalists to advance just 6 finalists.
Representing the Life Sciences Institute are:
Leah Lim
MSc Candidate
Thompson Lab
Microbiology & Immunology Department
Sarah S. Chow
PhD Candidate
Accili Lab
Dept of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
John Shin
PhD Candidate
Loewen Lab
Dept of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
Leah Lim and John Shin will be presenting April 27th at the 1pm heat and Sarah Chow will be presenting at the 2:30pm heat.
Semi-Finals will be in the Ballroom, Graduate Student Centre, 6371 Crescent Road.
LSI Heat
10 fantastic presenters competed in the LSI heat on April 14th:
“Natural Killer Cell Targeting of Leukemic Stem Calls in an AML Mouse Model” – Laura Guillon
“Drug Combinations against Tuberculosis” -Leah Lim
“Sub-inhibitory Levels of Antibiotics Increase Gene Transfer in Rhodobacter capsulatus” – Rachel Bernelot Moens
“Enzymes in Tuberculosis” – Jenna Capyk
“Sponge Library Screens for Incretin Receptor Modulators” – Cathy Merchant
“Offsetting Nutritional Balance to Combat Bacterial Infections” – Carol Ng
“Why Fungus?” – Jennifer Geddes
“Fighting Cancer with Yeast” – John Shin
“Mending Broken Hearts: A novel approach to designing heart rate controlling drugs” – Sarah S. Chow
“How Immune Cells Remember” – Zinaida Tebaykina
Thank you to our wonderful judging panel:
Dr. Jennifer Gardy
Dr. David Ng
Bill Hanegraaf
A Microbiology & Immunology student also provided some live blogging from the event and photos are available here.
Coaching Session
Coach: Simon Clews, University of Melbourne
Simon Clews, our Coach, is the Director of the Writing Centre for Scholars and Researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and was a judge in the OZ-NZ 3MT competition in 2010. He has been visiting UBC to offer writing workshops through GPS and has kindly agreed to provide this coaching session to help UBC launch our inaugural competition. Simon believes that learning to stand up and explain your research clearly is an essential skill. His message is “Laser pointers are for geeks!” If you attend this session, you will be up on your feet and practicing to speak, so be prepared to leave your modesty at the door!
Notes available for download (pdf)
History of 3MT
3MT was an initiative of the University of Queensland in 2008 and is now run annually. In 2010, the University of Queensland hosted the Inaugural Australia and New Zealand 3MT competition. 33 universities competed in that competition, representing over 50,000 graduate students. UBC is one of the first Universities in North America to host a 3MT competition. Faculty Heats are beginning in mid-March leading to the semi-finals in April, and the final on May 10th. Information about 3MT at UBC:
http://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/gps-graduate-pathways-success/three-minute-thesis
