On Wednesday, November 19th, the Irish Universities Association (IUA) held the third annual Irish rendition of the Three Minute Thesis competition. Seven PhD candidates from various Irish universities were tasked with presenting their thesis project in three minutes using only one slide. The researchers, who were the winners of their universities’ respective internal competitions, presented to a non-specialist audience and a judging panel consisting of three professionals. The competitors were scored on four criteria: comprehension, content, engagement, and communication.
EmmaJude Lyons, a PhD candidate of the School of Design at the University of Limerick, was named the winner of the competition by the judging panel. Her research’s objective is to develop breast prostheses for women who have had a mastectomy. Commenting on her win, she said that “women’s health is an important but often overlooked national issue and this competition is a good opportunity to shine a spotlight on this”. The audience choice winner was Áine Gorman from the Department of Economics at University College Cork (UCC).
Trinity PhD candidate Almudena Moreno Borrallo was named runner-up in the audience choice category. Her research looks at “the potential of pH-responsive polymersomes for targeted Glioblastoma treatment”. On the official website of the IUA, Borrallo explains that she has “always been interested in the complexities of the molecular biology of cancer and how to use that knowledge to stop it, and this project gave me the opportunity to apply that interest in a way that could have real clinical relevance”.
This is the third time the IUA is hosting the Three Minute Thesis competition. It originated in Queensland, Australia and has since spread around the globe. After the event, Chair of the Judging panel and new Director General of IUA, Paul Johnston, said that the competition “provides a great opportunity to showcase the talent of our young university researchers in Ireland”. He also noted that “the Government announced greater research funding as part of the recent NDP review and in particular a Research Infrastructure and Talent Fund which could help support the young researchers here today”.
