Florida Atlantic University's Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition
An 80,000 word thesis would take 9 hours to present....their time limit is 3 minutes.
FAU Graduate College will host the University's 7th Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®) live, in-person at the Boca Raton Campus Student Union this Spring 2023! The 3MT® competition challenges graduate students around the world to pitch their research in only 3 minutes to a live audience. Developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2008, 3MT® competitions are now held in over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide. At FAU's annual competition, over $30,000 in scholarship prizes are awarded annually to winners from both the Preliminary Rounds and the Championship. Distinguished FAU community members serve judges and a public vote determines the People's Choice winners. FAU’s 3MT® Championship Award is generously sponsored through the Dr. Eric H. Shaw 3MT® Championship Award Endowment Fund. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact 3MT@fau.edu.
Championship Winners
2023 FAU 3MT® Champions
FAU Championship Winner and recipient of the Dr. Eric H. Shaw 3MT® Championship Endowment Award* (tie)
Hayley Knapp
"From Poop to Parent: Examining Paternity in Dynamic Atlantic Spotted Dolphin Populations in the Bahamas"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: John Baldwin, Ph.D.
Heat Winner 1 & People's Choice Award
FAU Championship Winner and recipient of the Dr. Eric H. Shaw 3MT® Championship Endowment Award* (tie)
Ingrid Santillan Barragan
"Corrosion is in the air"
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Advisor: Francisco Presuel-Moreno, Ph.D.
Heat 1 Runner-Up
FAU 3MT® Runner-Up & People's Choice Award
Amish Mishra
"So, you wanna build a protein?"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Francis Motta, Ph.D.
Heat 4 Winner & People's Choice Award
FAU 3MT® 2nd Runner-Up
Emmanuel McNeely
"'What Does A Surgeon Look Like?': How Stereotypes May Negatively Impact Recruitment Into the Least Diverse Specialty in Medicine"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Advisor: Jennifer Caceres, Ph.D.
Heat 4 2nd Runner-Up
Heat Winners
Heat 1
Webcast Recording: FAU Graduate College YouTube
Photos: FAU Graduate College Facebook
Heat Winner: Meghan Hanley
"Feeling Flow and Expressing Emotions while Improvising: Music Therapy and Music Professor Perspectives"
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters
Advisor: Marc Decker, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up (tie) & People's Choice Award: Kayla O'Brien
"Microplastics in Mangrove and Beach Sediments on Southeast Florida Barrier Islands"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Tiffany Robert Briggs, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up (tie): Margaret Rodrigue
"Ichthyoplankton Recruitment within Mangrove-dominated Mosquito Control Impoundments"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Dennis Hanisak, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up: Abigail Blackburn
"Bioluminescense of the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Michael Twardowski, Ph.D.
Heat 2
Webcast Recording: FAU Graduate College YouTube
Photos: FAU Graduate College Facebook
Heat Winner & People's Choice Award: Hayley Knapp
"From Poop to Parent: Examining Paternity in Dynamic Atlantic Spotted Dolphin Populations in the Bahamas"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: John Baldwin, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up: Ingrid Santillan Barragan
"Corrosion is in the air"
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Advisor: Francisco Presuel-Moreno, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up: Dominic Gold
"Homomorphic Encryption Will Save the World (And Your Privacy)"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Francis Motta, Ph.D.
Heat 3
Webcast Recording: FAU Graduate College YouTube
Photos: FAU Graduate College Facebook
Heat Winner & People's Choice Award: Diana Fedderman
"A Critical Content Analysis of Fountas and Pinnell's LLI System"
College of Education
Advisor: Michelle Vaughan, Ed.D.
1st Runner-Up (tie): Marjorie Patterson
"The Influence of Nature, Poetry, and Contemporary Techniques in the Music of John Burge"
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Advisor: Marc Decker, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up (tie): Matthew Patterson
"A Picture of Resiliency: Students Attending College While Homeless"
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Advisor: Danielle Groton, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up (tie): Robin Jimenez-Bean
"Perceptions of Posttraumatic Growth Among Adults with Lived Experience in Foster Care"
College of Social Work and Criminal Justice
Advisor: Morgan Cooley, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up (tie): Megan Spring
"American Possession: Ghostlore in Toni Morrison's Beloved"
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Advisor: Regis Fox, Ph.D.
Heat 4
Webcast Recording: FAU Graduate College YouTube
Photos: FAU Graduate College Facebook
Heat Winner & People's Choice Award: Amish Mishra
"So, you wanna build a protein?"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Francis Motta, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up: Morgan Slevin
"What's up your gut? Solving mysteries of the avian gut microbiome"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Rindy Anderson, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up: Emmanuel McNeely
"'What Does A Surgeon Look Like?': How Stereotypes May Negatively Impact Recruitment Into the Least Diverse Specialty in Medicine"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Advisor: Jennifer Caceres, Ph.D.
Heat 5
Webcast Recording: FAU Graduate College YouTube
Photos: FAU Graduate College Facebook
Heat Winner: Dawn Raja Somu
"With Every Fiber: Characterizing Biomineral Ultrastructure and Nanomechanical Properties of Shark Vertebrae"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Vivian Merk, Ph.D.
1st Runner-Up: Hans Gonzembach
"Disentangling relationships between ornamentation and non-primary vocalizations in near-threatened songbird (Peucaea aestivalis)"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Rindy Anderson, Ph.D.
2nd Runner-Up: Heather Wolverton
"Repertoires of Redundancy: Exploring the Function of Vocal Complexity in Bachman's Sparrow Song"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Rindy Anderson, Ph.D.
People's Choice Award: Ivana Serra
"Turtle life in and with a boney shield—where biomechanics meets behavior"
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Advisor: Jeannette Wyneken, Ph.D.
Thank you to FAU's 2023 3MT® Heat & Championship Judging Panel
Championship
Dr. Stacy Volnick
President, Florida Atlantic University
Dr. Michele Hawkins
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Larry Faerman
Vice President for Student Affairs
Nikki Cabus
Chief Executive Officer, South Florida Tech Hub
Heat 1
Dr. Bobby Duersch
Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Dr. Sarah Nielsen
Instructor, Business Communications, College of Business
Dr. Paul Peluso
Senior Associate Dean and Professor, College of Education
Heat 2
Tracy Boulukos
Assistant Vice President for Financial Aid and New Student Services Initiatives, Provost Office
Dr. Predrag Cudic
Asscoaite Dean for Research and Profession, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Dr. Robert W. Stackman, Jr.
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, John D. MacArthur Jupiter Campus
Heat 3
Dr. Janell Wildgoose-Carroll
Special Projects and Internal Relations Coordinator, Division of Research
Eileen Bustamante
associate Director, Academic Services/Degree Completion, Graduate College
Sameko Munroe
Assistant Dean, Operations Management, Finance, and Information Technology, Graduate College
Heat 4
Dr. James Granger
Instructor, Business Communications, College of Business
Dr. Mitchel Baccinelli
Assistant Director, Undergraduate Admissions
Dr. Lenny Chiang-Hanisko
associate Professor, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Heat 5
Dr. Jessica Lopez-Velez
Director, Online Enrollment and Student Success
Dr. Shireen Lalla
Associate Director, Broward Testing and Certfication
Dr. Ben Lowe
Professor, History, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
For sponsorship opportunities, please contact 3mt@fau.edu.
Accommodations
If reasonable accommodation(s) for a disability is required, contact at 3mt@fau.edu. Please make your needs known at least five days prior to the event for effective accommodations.
The Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.More information on the 3MT® Program can be found on threeminutethesis.org.