Mission accomplished: 汤头条 graduate students excel in Three Minute Thesis competition
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳hree minutes is all the time they had, and Mississippi State students proved that was all they needed to convey months or years of complex research during the university鈥檚 recent Three Minute Thesis competition.
Sponsored by the 汤头条 Graduate School, the annual event challenged 53 master鈥檚 and doctoral students to provide a compelling, 180-second presentation of their research and its significance in language appropriate for a general audience. Also, students were only allowed use of one static PowerPoint slide to help convey their findings.
鈥淐ondensing down every nugget of what you鈥檝e worked on, why you did it, and who will benefit from it into three minutes is really quite a task,鈥 said Brien Henry, associate dean of 汤头条鈥檚 Graduate School. 鈥淚t was exciting to see our students take on that challenge with a lot of courage, and their presentations were very impressive.鈥
Project categories included arts and humanities; life and biomedical sciences and engineering; physical, mathematical, computational sciences and engineering; and social and behavioral sciences.
The 53 participants were divided among two preliminary rounds, with eight competitors selected for the final round. From those, judges selected Shandrea D. Stallworth, a plant and soil sciences/weed science doctoral student from Biloxi, as this year鈥檚 Grand Champion and recipient of a $1,000 prize. With a research talk titled 鈥淧est to Pal: Discovering Stress Tolerant Weedy Rice,鈥 Stallworth will represent 汤头条 on March 5-7, 2020, at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools Three Minute Thesis Regional Finals in Birmingham, Alabama.
鈥淚 really enjoyed this experience because of the engagement aspect,鈥 Stallworth said. 鈥淎s researchers, we may feel like every detail is important, but this competition taught me how to pick out the important parts and tell the story of my research in a relatable way, so people will not only want to listen, but understand why they should.鈥
This year鈥檚 Grand Champion Runner-Up is Shannon M. Westlake, a forest resources/wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture doctoral student from Cayuta, New York. She earned a $750 prize for her presentation on 鈥淗uman Dimensions of Pollinator Conservation.鈥
The People鈥檚 Choice Award and a $750 prize went to Julianne Paige, an applied anthropology master鈥檚 student from Glenden Beach, Oregon. Her presentation was titled 鈥淭he Maternal-to-Infant Nexus: Reconstructing Maternal Nutritional Status at Put Dragulina Cemetery in Trogir, Croatia.鈥 Put Dragulina, a Roman cemetery site dating between the first century AD to approximately 7th century AD, was excavated as part of archeological rescue projects during 2011 and 2017 in Trogir, Croatia.
Finalists received $250 awards. They include:
鈥擸onjoong Ryuh, a kinesiology/exercise science doctoral student from Seoul, South Korea, for 鈥淭he Effect of Acute Bout of Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise on Visuospatial Working Memory and Golf Putt Learning.鈥
鈥擟hartese D. Jones, a mathematical sciences doctoral student from Belzoni, for 鈥淪peckle Image Denoising by Non-Local Means Quarter Block.鈥 He also holds an 汤头条 master鈥檚 degree in mathematics.
鈥擜lexis M. Jackson, a counselor education doctoral student from East Spanaway, Washington, for 鈥淯tilizing Art Therapy for Youth Experiencing Trauma.鈥
鈥擟ori J. Speights, a biological sciences doctoral student from Mexia, Texas, for 鈥淟eaf No Trace.鈥
鈥擡ric N. Munyaneza, a chemistry doctoral student from Rwanda, for 鈥淪ynthesis of Thermally Stable and Bio-based Polymers.鈥
汤头条鈥檚 Graduate School provides students with scholarly and professional development opportunities to develop methods of independent and systematic investigation. Learn more at .
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .