Three Minute Thesis/ Ma thèse en 180 secondes competitions prompt participants to distill complex work into language the average person understands
If you think spending years developing a master’s or PhD thesis is hard, try distilling all that work into a three-minute presentation for a general audience.
Fourteen McGill graduate students participating in the McGill finals of the Three Minute Thesis| Ma thèse en 180 secondes (3MT/MT180) competition did exactly that. And they delivered their presentations, spanning a variety of fields and Faculties, to a packed audience at the Faculty Club April 3, with many others following online.
“You represent us so well,” Josephine Nalbantoglu, Associate Provost (Graduate Education), told the finalists. “This is emblematic of what we do, in all departments… [and of] the entire culture of McGill.”
Racchana Ramamurthy: First place 3MT
First place in the 3MT competition went to Racchana Ramamurthy, a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering.
Ramamurthy discussed her work developing a novel method to detect and analyze both small and large PFAS particles (or “forever chemicals”), enabling better understanding and regulation, potentially leading to the elimination of these harmful substances.
In the question period, she told the audience that participating in the competition gave her a broader perspective on her work.
“For four years, I’ve only been looking at it from a fundamental analytical chemistry aspect,” said Ramamurthy. “When I started looking at how I could present my research for 3MT … I realized how PFAS can affect every one of us and how PFAS is present in all of our blood.”
Next stop for Ramamurthy is the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies Eastern Regional competition in Newfoundland in June. Should she win there, she would compete at the National Showcase in November.
Daniel Mendelson: First place MT180
First place in MT180, the French portion of the competition, went to Daniel Mendelson, who discussed his research into epilepsy. Mendelson, who is pursuing his MD-PhD in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience, uses advanced techniques to study both living brain activity and tissue samples from people with epilepsy to better understand the condition.
During the question period, Mendelson thanked his father for spurring his interest in communicating his research to a broader audience.
“For one of my first research projects, I asked my father to look over what I had written to see if it was clear. He said, ‘it looks great, but I have no idea what its about,’” said Mendelson. “I realized right there how easy it is to retreat into our bubble where we speak a language that only our colleagues understand.” He added that the competition presents a wonderful opportunity to make academic work more accessible.
Mendelson’s win earned him a spot at the Association francophone pour le savoir (Acfas) national final. It will be held next month at the at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montreal during Acfas’s annual congress.
Gabriel Blanco Gomez: People’s Choice Award
The People’s Choice Award, voted on by members of audience at the Faculty Club and online, went to Gabriel Blanco Gomez, PhD candidate in Integrated Program in Neuroscience. Gomez’s research uses neuroscience and computational models to develop neurological profiles of children with autism, helping tailor therapies that better address their individual needs.
After the competition, Gomez praised the 3MT process, saying it has helped his work as a clinician.
“I work with a lot of families and parents who have children with autism. Science is very inaccessible, so they have a lot of questions. It is very hard to explain to them how something works when it is very complex,” he said, adding that preparing for the 3MT competition helped inspired him to think of analogies he could use to help parents better understand.
On the jury were Alexander Liepins, Associate Director in Office of the Associate Provost (Teaching and Academic Planning); Joe Schwarcz, Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society; Sandy Hervieux, Head of the Nahum Gelber Law Library at McGill University; and Atia Amin, a PhD candidate and Vanier Scholar at the Department of Human Genetics and winner of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at McGill in 2022.