3 Minute Thesis Competition

Each year Graduate Research students in the Monash BDI have the opportunity to compete in our Three Minute Thesis completion.

What is the Three Minute Thesis Competition?

Graduate Research students have three minutes to explain what they are researching in language that can be understood by a general audience. Students are only allowed to use one slide to assist them.

Students are judged on whether:

  • the language used is appropriate to an intelligent lay audience.
  • the talk is engaging, dynamic and compelling.
  • the presentation has been inventive in a way that it has helped the audience understand the research.

Enquiries:  BDI-graduate.program@monash.edu

2016 Winners

The winners of the Three Minute Thesis competition held on 2nd August 2016, were Cara Nethercott, from the Department of Microbiology, for her presentation A Bad Bug and a Terrible Toxin: How they play nasty with your White Blood Cells and Blake Riley, from the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, for his presentation Changing the crab's claw": Evolving a bacteria-killing enzyme. Both received $200 and went on to compete in the Faculty final. Runner up went to Caitlin Lewis from the Department of Pharmacology for her presentation The Macrophage: Hero or Villain of Heart Disease. She received $100. Caitlin also won the People’s Choice Award and received a further $100.

 

2015 Winners

Winner 1: Megan Evans (Department of Pharmacology) - "Placental Stem Cells: A future therapy for stroke"
Winner 2: Brooke Huuske (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) - "You, me and pee"
Runner up: Mitchell Batty (Department of Microbiology) - "Aiming drugs at a bad bug"

 

2014 Winners

Winner 1: Victor Suturin (Department of Physiology) – "The killer cure"
Winner 2: Felix Deuss (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) – "To Kill or Not to Kill?"
Runner up: Brooke Huuskes (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) – "Relaxin' with stem cells"

 

2013 Winners

Winner 1: Danielle Rhodes (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) – "Katanin: A Cellular Samurai"
Winner 2: Ben Seyer (Department of Physiology) – "Targeting Hypometabolism in Alzheimer's Disease"
Runner up: Adam Shahine (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) – "H.M.A.S Tuberculosis Under Siege"

2012 Winners

Winner 1: Jessica Van Gent (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) -"Deal or No Deal: Cell fate choices in the developing testis".
Winner 2: Michael Kraakman (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) - "Russel Crowe and Lego Man. An unbeatable recipe for conveying complex biological phenomena to lay audiences". Michael also won the faculty competition.
Runner up: Adam Shahine (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) - "Severing the supply route between mycobacteria and host macrophages".

 

2011 Winners

Winner 1: Mohsin Sarwar (Department of Pharmacology) - "The mechanisms of relaxin's cardiovascular effects".
Winner 2: Priyangi Alwis (Department of Microbiology) - "Characterisation of Burhokderia pseudomallei two-component signal transduction systems".
Runner-up: Sarah Wilkinson (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) - "Prostate cancer: the usual suspects".

 

2010 Winners

Winner 1: Dana Briggs (Department of Physiology) - "The future is fat".
Winner 2: Kate MacKin (Department of Microbiology) - "Does Clostridium difficile form biofilms?".
Runner-up: Sarah Wilkinson (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) - "Stromal hedgehog signaling mediates prostate epithelial cell transformation".

 

2009 Winners

Winner 1: Renee Duncan (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) - "MASP-2 and C1s: the samurai of complement".
Winner 2: Ken Walker (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) - "Nephrons in the kidney: the more the merrier?".
3rd place - Sarah Lockie (Department of Physiology) - "Forbidden fruit: why hamburgers are more tempting than apples".
4th place - Megan O'Reilly (Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology) - "Inhalation of high oxygen concentrations after birth: does it affect the development of the smaller airways of the lung?".