An Italian PhD student is the winner of this year’s Three Minute Thesis competition, held in the Hunter Council Chamber on Friday.
Michele Fontana, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS), took top honours and prize money of $3,000 from a field of nine finalists.
Organised by the Postgraduate Student Association, the event challenged master’s and PhD candidates to boil down years of work into a three-minute presentation, which would be understood by a lay audience.
Michele, a School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies student delivered a presentation on the science museum he has created inside a pizza box. He says his career goal is to put the results of his research into practice by developing effective programmes for museum visitors.
In addition to the cash prize, Michele will represent Victoria at the Trans-Tasman Final at the University of Western Australia in Perth on 3 November.
There were 96 entrants in the event this year, a record high for Victoria since the competition began in 2010. The contestants, from across faculties, presented talks on everything from collaborative teaching styles to trying to pin down the causes of autism.
Second prize of $1,000 was awarded to another FHSS student Melanie Revis, who also won the People’s Choice trophy. Third place was shared, with a cash prize of $250 each, between science PhD students Wilfred Kittler and Ryan Kyle.
Information Management student Fahimi Md Ali won the $250 International Award, sponsored by Victoria International. Chemical and Physical Sciences student Ruth Corkill won the Honours Award presented during the faculty rounds.
A video of the finalist presentations will be available soon.
