Biological Science's students win big at Three Minute Thesis Competition
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition requires postgraduate students to effectively communicate their research in three minutes, with the assistance of one presentation slide.
There are a range of prizes on offer for PhD, Master’s and Honours students.
Biological Science’s Master’s student Saskia Ymker has fought off PhD challengers to win the competition organised by Victoria University of Wellington’s Postgraduate Students’ Association.
Saskia won the Master’s Prize and was then overall winner for her presentation about her thesis investigating how environmental factors interact with genes and how that influences the symptoms of schizophrenia.
She received a cheque for $3,000 and, as top performing Master’s student, now goes on to compete in the national Master’s inter-university 3MT competition at the University of Canterbury on Thursday 23 August.
“It has been such a great experience to learn how to effectively communicate my thesis in three minutes,” she says. “As my friends know, I can easily talk about my project for hours, but being concise is a lot harder. I am stoked to have won the Victoria University of Wellington final and I’m hoping it means I have a good shot in the Christchurch competition.”
Presenting Saskia with her prize, judge Professor Peter Whiteford, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Research, praised the exceptional calibre of the nine finalists.
Each year the competition’s top PhD student goes on to compete in the Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition at the University of Queensland in Australia.
This year that will be Jasmine Chan-Hyam, also from the School of Biological Sciences, who was People’s Choice and overall runner-up, receiving $1,000 for her presentation ‘A precision strike: bacterial cancer therapy’.
Placed third and receiving $500 was Zak Murray, another winner from the School of Biological Sciences, for ‘Detecting the invisible contaminants in water’. Zak also won the Resilience and Sustainability Prize, worth $500.
The Victoria International Prize, worth $250, went to Sonja Hummel, from the School of Biological Sciences, for ‘Mitochondria—the Powerhouse of the cell’.
Preventing a clean sweep for the School of Biological Sciences, Darryn Ooi, from the School of Law, won the $250 Honours Prize for ‘If we both agreed for my best friend to arbitrate our dispute, that’s fine … right?’
The Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition will be on Thursday 27 September.