(VIDEO) The four winners were announced after the top 12 finalists presented their theses.
The Texas Tech University Graduate School celebrated the research of its students with the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. The 3MT® competition is designed to cultivate graduate students' academic, presentation and research communication skills by allowing them to explain their thesis or dissertation to a non-specialist audience in three minutes or less and using only one, static PowerPoint slide.
The four winners were announced after the top 12 finalists competed. The winners, their fields of study and the title of their theses are as follows:
- First place: Inosha Wijewardene, doctoral student, College of Arts & Sciences – Biological Sciences, “Co-overexpression of AVP1 and RCA to increase drought, salt and heat tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana”
- Second Place: Demi Gary, master's student, College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources – Natural Resources Management, “Examining the southern Great Plains for hotspots of at-risk species”
- Third Place: Judy Rose, doctoral student, College of Education – Curriculum & Instruction, “African American Representation in Social Studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)”
- People's Choice: Patricia Ryan, doctoral candidate, College of Education – Educational Psychology and Leadership, “Women leaders in higher education: Career pathway factors, leadership styles, institutional fit and attaining legitimacy for female university presidents”
Wijewardene was awarded $300; Gary was awarded $200; and Rose and Ryan were each awarded $100 for their achievements.
“My sincere thanks goes out to the dean and staff of the Graduate School, as well as the panel of judges, for making this event a success,” Wijewardene said. “I'm also grateful for the encouragement extended to me by my adviser, my colleagues in the lab and my family. I felt it was a tough competition, and there were really good speakers. I believe the 3MT® competition equipped me with a necessary skill where I could tell someone what I'm working on without being either too scientific or too boring – it's just three minutes. It was definitely an unforgettable experience.”
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