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Three Minute Thesis
One slide. Three minutes. Cash prizes. Give voice to your thesis in SFU's annual 3 Minute Thesis competition.
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition challenges graduate students to present their thesis and its significance in just three minutes and one slide. The competition cultivates students' academic, presentation, and research communication skills, and celebrates exciting graduate research taking place at Simon Fraser University.
Take a peek at past finalists to learn about competing and SFU graduate reseach
Winners: 2023
- First Place & People's Choice: Saif Nayani, PhD Biological Sciences
- Runner Up: Yameena Naqvi, Master's of Sustainable Energy Engineering
Why Participate?
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February 23, 2023
February 23, 2023
3MT winner, Elana Varner, shares how she used her passion for knowledge mobilization to land a fellowship with the California Council on Science and Technology and some advice for future 3MT participants.
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February 27, 2023
February 27, 2023
Interviews with Dana Lepofsky (archaeology) and Gerhard Gries (biology) reveal similar supportive approaches to preparing their students for 3MT.
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Find out what our top 3MT participants from 2022 (Sam Meraj, Ghazal Mirabnahrazam, and Adlin Alwyn) learned from participating.
"I wanted to let you know about a phone call I had today. A previous contact was looking for information on my work, and Googled my name. He found the 3MT video and watched it, and shared it at his office. The company he works for is now asking if I would be interested in consulting with them, and if there are other people in my department with similar skills.
His comment was that it was excellent advertising for me, as well as excellent marketing for my research lab, and for our whole department."
— Mary Ann Middleton, 3MT 2013 competitor
Final
- 1st Place: $1,000
- 2nd Place: $500
- People's Choice: $250
Faculty Heats
- An overall winner and runner up will be chosen to move forward to the university wide final.
- Prizes for faculty heats will vary according to each faculty:
- $300–$400 for the winner
- $100–$150 for the People's Choice prize
History of 3MT
Developed by The University of Queensland in 2008, the competition challenges higher-degree research students to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance in just three minutes in language appropriate to a general audience. 3MT is not an exercise in trivializing or ‘dumbing-down’ research but forces students to consolidate their ideas and crystallize their research discoveries.
Since 2011, the popularity of the competition has increased and 3MT competitions are now held in over 200 universities across more than 18 countries worldwide.