Guarini Graduate Students Compete in International 3-Minute Thesis Contest

In April this year, Curtis Peterson, then Academic Chair of the Graduate Student Council, hosted the annual Three Minute Thesis contest (3MT) at the top of the HOP. The event encourages graduate students to think about the elevator pitch they must be ready to give to explain the impact of their work to a general audience, using only one slide.

The third annual iteration of this contest at Dartmouth saw eleven participants present their research. A faculty panel of judges, including Guarini Dean Jon Kull awarded three candidates top honors: Rachel Brog from the Molecular and Cell Biology program for her presentation Self-driving electric CARs, Braden Elliot, from the Ecology, Evolution, Ecosystems, and Society program who asked Why are there meadows in the rainforest?, and Christina Gilligan from Physics and Astronomy for her presentation Measuring distances in astronomy.

The 3MT contest is traditionally hosted at Dartmouth by the GSC and is part of an increasingly global event, with institutions in over 65 countries hosting this research communication event. This year saw the inauguration of a truly global finale which was hosted in April at the United Nations headquarter building in New York City. Brog, Gilligan, and Elliott were invited to participate.

The event was part of a unique Development Policy Seminar, hosted by the Development Research Branch in partnership with Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Hamid Rashid, Chief, Development Research Branch, moderated the seminar that attracted more than 200 attendees from the UN, permanent missions and participating academic institutions. In his opening remarks, Elliott Harris, Assistant Secretary General and UN Chief Economist, welcomed the initiative, underscoring the need for innovative-thinking and greater collaboration for addressing multi-faceted sustainable development challenges.

If you missed it, don't worry!

This year, the Matariki 3MT® competition seeks to provide an additional networking and professional development opportunity for the winners of individual institution contests by hosting an online event.

Champions and runner ups in the three-minute thesis (3MT) competition in their respective institutions are invited to submit a video of their presentation. This purely virtual competition will open for public voting on October 14. Don't forget to vote before October 25 when voting closes.

Click here to see all candidates and don't forget to vote!