On Monday night the College of Arts and Sciences held its first internal 3-Minute Thesis (3MT^®) competition. Sharmily Khanam earned the top prize and will represent the college in the university-wide contest on Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. 

A panel of three judges awarded Khanam the $100 prize while the audience also made her the “people’s choice” award winner, garnering her an additional $25. She presented the topic “Discovering the Molecular Mechanisms of Calcium-induced Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.” Khanam is pursuing a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and is advised by Dr. Marianna Patrauchan. 

3MT^® is a research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland. The exercise challenges research degree students to present a compelling oration on their thesis/dissertation topic and its significance in just three minutes using just one slide.  3MT^® develops academic, presentation, and research communication skills and supports the development of research students' capacity to explain their research effectively in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

Second place went to Steven De Loose, pursuing his Thesis Master’s in Theatre under advisor Dr. Maria Beach, for his presentation titled, “Dramatizing Iraq and Afghanistan: Veteran Voices from the War on Terror.” Two presenters tied for third place: Megan Trope (Zoology, Ph.D.) for “Conservation Genomics of Bald Eagles” and Alireza Boloorchi (Computer Science, Ph.D.) for “Adaptive Cluster-Size: A New Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks.”  

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