More than 60 doctoral students participated in the 2018 Three Minute Thesis preliminary competition October 24 and 29, and more than half of those students will advance to the semi-finals on Thursday, October 31.
Hosted by UAB Graduate School and developed by The University of Queensland, the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by doctoral students. The exercise cultivates students’ academic, presentation and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
Student competitors were divided into nine sessions. A panel of judges from across campus listened and scored each competitor. The three students with the highest scores from each session will advance to the semifinals, which will take place at 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Thursday, October 31, in the Hill Student Center room 318.
The Graduate School would like to thank all of our student participants, as well as those who volunteered their time to judge the competition.
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Session 1
1st place: Kylie Heitman, Ph.D. trainee in Pathobiology, Physiology, and Pharmocology. The title of her talk was Pop kulture! Phosphate receiving excess press.
2nd place: Jaret Langston, Ph.D. trainee in Interdisciplinary Engineering. The title of his talk was Protect your smartphone with a pencil.
3rd place: Benjamin Wildman, Ph.D. trainee in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology. The title of his talk was Dewey Decimal System of the stem cell: How epigenetic regulation curates the maturation of bone.
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Session 2
1st place: Grace Elizabeth Salzer, Ph.D. trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics. The title of her talk was Peculiar channels in your heart are plotting to kill you.
2nd place: Shia Vang, Ph.D. trainee in Biochemistry and Structural Biology. The title of his talk was Zombie cells: Culprits of aging?
3rd place: Justina Feng, Ph.D. trainee in Biology. The title of her talk was Heterochromatin protein 1: The importance of a punctuation mark.
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Session 3
1st place: Mackenzie Davenport, Ph.D. trainee in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics. The title of her talk was Cutting out the cancer (with molecular scissors).
2nd place: Raoud Marayati, Ph.D. trainee in Cancer Biology. The title of her talk was Knocking out the villain - cancer invasion and metastasis.
3rd place: Shervonne Poleon, Ph.D. trainee in Vision Science. The title of her talk was Improving medication adherence in glaucoma.
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Session 4
1st place: Ayushe Sharma, Ph.D. trainee in Behavioral Neuroscience. The title of her talk was Imaging epilepsy: Brains on fire.
2nd place: Dominic I. Ezemenaka, Ph.D. trainee in Materials Engineering. The title of his talk was What about eutectics?
3rd place: Abby McConahay, Ph.D. trainee in Microbiology. The title of her talk was Optimizing the speed of ribosome manufacturing.
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Session 5
1st place: William Wagner, Ph.D. trainee in Lifespan Developmental Psychology. The title of his talk was Evolution in traditional notions of emotion.
2nd place: Ashlyn Anderson, Ph.D. trainee in Immunology. The title of her talk was Th17 cells: The frenemies.
3rd place: Nikita Bhalerao, Ph.D. trainee in Cancer Biology. The title of her talk was Sugars in cancer: Finding the sweet spot.
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Session 6
1st place: Christina Glenn, Ph.D. trainee in Biostatistics. The title of her talk was Ending the wait time to mental health services.
2nd place: Lacy Goode, Ph.D. trainee in Neuroscience. The title of her talk was Tick tock: Brain clocks.
3rd place: Casie Morgan, Ph.D. trainee in Medical-Clinical Psychology. The title of her talk was Your friendly neighborhood superkid.
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Session 7
1st place: Grace Albright, Ph.D. trainee in Lifespan Developmental Psychology. The title of her talk was Parent-teen interactions during autonomous driving.
2nd place: Michael B. Williams, Ph.D. trainee in Biology. The title of his talk was Seeking big benefits from small fish.
3rd place: Saleh Alhirsan, Ph.D. trainee in Rehabilitation Science. The title of his talk was Exercise through gaming experience.
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Session 8
1st place: Shameka Rodgers, Ph.D. trainee in Nursing. The title of her talk was Harry Potter and the child with poor sleep quality.
2nd place: Jason Needham, Ph.D. trainee in Microbiology. The title of his talk was How to train your virus.
3rd place: Sangeeta Nair, Ph.D. trainee in Behavioral Neuroscience. The title of her talk was Seeing the whole picture: Advancements in human brain imaging.
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Session 9
1st place: Katherine Sims Thompson, DNP trainee in Nursing. The title of her talk was Movie magic: Changing the patient's perception.
2nd place: Bre` Minniefield, Ph.D. trainee in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics. The title of her talk was The medication doesn’t work.
3rd place: Heather Dark, Ph.D. trainee in Medical/Clinical Psychology. The title of her talk was Altered connections?