2023 Division Winners
Yale’s 3-Minute Thesis Competition challenges Ph.D. students to describe their thesis work to a non-specialist audience - in just 3 minutes! Join us in congratulating all participants in the division rounds, held last week, for their fascinating and engaging presentations. This year for the first time, a 1st prize of $750 and 2nd prize of $400 were awarded to the top presentations within each of 5 academic divisions. The following winners who will move onto the final competition on April 14:
Biological Sciences
- 1st Place ($750): Elizabeth Woo (4th year, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program): “Investigating the Neurons Susceptible to Degeneration: A “GLO1”-Wing Hint”
- 2nd Place ($400): Sateja Paradkar (5th year, Pathology): “Implicating PARG In Cancer Drug Resistance”
Physical Sciences
- 1st Place ($750): Zili Shen (4th year, Astronomy): “Finding the Biggest Dwarf Galaxies in Our Cosmic Backyard”
- 2nd Place ($400): Kaustav Mitra (5th year, Astronomy): “Weighing Galaxies to Quantify Some Fundamental Properties of the Universe”
Engineering & Applied Sciences
- 1st Place ($750): Anna Lynn (4th year, Biomedical Engineering): “How Can We Cure Disease Before Birth?”
- 2nd Place ($400): Alaaddin Ibrahimy (2nd year, Biomedical Engineering): “Drug Affinity in Brain: A New Approach in Early Phase Drug Development”
Humanities
- 1st Place ($750): Trina Hyun* (7th year, English): “In the Beginning was the “Medium”: A Literary History of 17th-Century Theology and Technology”
- 2nd Place ($400): Sophia Richardson, (7th year, English): “Reading the Surface in Early Modern English Literature”
- Alternate for Trina Hyun in Final: Thomas Munro (4th year, Classics): “The Contexts of Classical Reception in Post-War Britain”
Social Sciences
- 1st Place ($750): Kathryn Graves (5th year, Psychology): “Minds in Motion: How the Human Brain Gives Rise to Real-World Navigation”
- 2nd Place ($400) Tristan Yates* (5th year, Psychology): “The Secret Life Of Babies: An Fmri Approach To Infant Perception And Memory”
- Alternate for Tristan Yates in Final: Nghiem Huynh (5th year, Economics): “Bridging the Economic Divide: Lessons from Vietnam”
*Unavailable to attend the final competition.
April 14: 2023 3-Minute Thesis Final Competition
We invite the Yale community to cheer on this year's 10 finalists in this in-person celebration of Ph.D. research. During the event, you will be able cast your vote for the People's Choice awards so be sure to register now here!
Judging Panel
- Lynn Cooley, Dean of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
- Bert Eshaghpour '79 Ph.D., President, Wego Chemical & Mineral Corporation
- Katherine Cohen '97 Ph.D., CEO and Founder, IvyWise
- Kim Boehm '92 Ph.D., President, UC San Diego Alumni Board of Directors; Board Member: Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties, LEAD San Diego, and Reality Changers; Former Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Mills College
- David Sanchez '84 M.Phil., CEO, Sanchez Global LLC and Managing Director, Zanbato Securities
Prizes
- 1st Prize: $1000
- 2nd Prize: $500
- 3rd Prize: $300
- People's Choice – Humanities/Social Sciences: $300
- People’s Choice – STEM: $300
Questions?
Please contact Hyun Ja Shin, Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Career Services, or Jacob Gonzalez, Senior Associate Director, with any questions.
Yale’s 3-Minute Thesis Competition is supported by the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. It is a collaboration between the offices of the McDougal Graduate Student Center: the Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning, the Graduate Writing Lab, Graduate Student Life, the Office for Graduate Student Development & Diversity, and the Office of Career Strategy.
Yale’s event is modeled on the 3-Minute Thesis Competition founded by the University of Queensland. 3MT competitions are now held at over 900 universities and institutions across 85 countries around the world.
