Imagine explaining a 75,000 word dissertation in less than 180 seconds? Doctoral students across the globe are doing just that in the Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®).
Rutgers-Newark recently hosted the final round of its second annual 3MT® competition, featuring doctoral students from Global Affairs, Marketing, and Chemistry competing for cash prizes. Monika Baraniak (Chemistry) was crowned the Grand Prize Winner with her presentation on "Borinic Acid Polymers." Catrina Palmer (Management) was the First Runner-Up with her presentation entitled "The Transformation of Mentoring Relationships in Academe." Global Affairs doctoral students Rebecca Pena and Hourie Tafech, and recent graduate Olajumoke Ayandele, also competed with presentations on global philanthropy, refugee entrepreneurialism, and state resiliency and interventionism, respectively. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, this year's competition was held virtually, with competitors recording their own presentation and posting those recordings to the judging platform.
Founded at Australia's University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT® is now held at more than 900 universities across more than 85 countries. The competition is designed to develop presentation and engagement skills among doctoral students, and to bring research knowledge to larger communities. The RU-N competition was organized by the Graduate School-Newark and the P3 Collaboratory for Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship.
"The Graduate School has re-energized its efforts around preparing our students for diverse, rewarding careers, both within and outside of the academy. By putting professional development at the center of our programmatic offerings, we are signaling to students that career readiness is among the key objectives of their graduate education," said Dr. Taja-Nia Henderson, Dean of Rutgers Graduate School-Newark and Acting Director of the P3 Collaboratory. "We were committed to continuing this year's competition, even after in-person gatherings were no longer possible for our presenters due to COVID-19. Opportunities like the 3MT® help our students speak within and outside of their fields (and to multiple "publics") in powerful ways."
Under the rules of the 3MT®, contestants must package their research into a presentation lasting no more than three minutes, and may use only a single presentation slide. More information about 3MT® is available at www.threeminutethesis.org
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