Past 3MT Competitions
Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an international competition to help graduate students develop and showcase their research communication skills. The annual university-wide competition hosted by Cornell Graduate School challenges research-degree students to present their dissertation as a compelling story in just three minutes, with one slide, in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
2024 Finalists
- First Place: Meagan Sundstrom, physics doctoral candidate – “Recognizing and Removing Barriers for Women in Physics“
- Second Place: Sterling Williams-Ceci, information science doctoral student – “AI Helps us Write – but at What Cost?“
- People’s Choice Award: Sharada Gopal, biomedical and biological sciences doctoral candidate – “Worming Our Way to a Longer Life“
- Cátia Dombaxe, biomedical engineering doctoral candidate – “Hope for Spinal Cord Regeneration in Mammals“
- Amanda Domingues, science and technology studies doctoral candidate – “Advancing Science by Not Doing Science: Archaeology and Native American Cultural Patrimony“
- Viviana Maymi, biomedical and biological sciences doctoral candidate/doctor of veterinary medicine candidate – “Young Guns: Baby T Cells Killing Cancer“
- Agustín Olivo, animal science doctoral candidate – “Annual Nitrogen Health Check-up for Corn“
- Jerry Richardson, psychology doctoral candidate – “Costs and Self/Other Differences When Reporting Good Deeds“
2023 Finalists
- Co-First Place and People’s Choice Award: Yurong You, computer science doctoral candidate – “Can Autonomous Vehicles Learn from Their Own Memories?“
- Co-First Place: Kimberly Hochstedler, statistics doctoral candidate – “The Heart of Misdiagnosis“
- Second Place: Lidia Komondy, entomology doctoral candidate – “Seeing is Believing, if You Know Where to Look“
- Fangming Cui, psychology doctoral candidate – “An Upside to Disappointment in Close Relationships: Evidence for a Motivational, Relationship-Promoting Role“
- Sharada Gopal, biomedical and biological sciences doctoral student – “Worming Our Way Through a Longer Life“
- Yuexing Hao, design and environmental analysis doctoral student – “AI-Enhanced Patient-Centered Clinical Shared Decision-Making (SDM): A ‘Black Box’ Study with Older Adults“
- Sangwoo Park, biophysics doctoral candidate – “Sugar Barrier on the Cancer Cells“
- Susannah Sharpless, English language and literature doctoral candidate – “How Did Maritime Trade Shape the Imaginations of American Women Writers?“
2022 Finalists
- First Place: Bruno Shirley, Asian literature, religion, and culture doctoral candidate – “Constructing Buddhist kingship in medieval Sri Lanka“
- Second Place: Vaibhav Sharma, physics doctoral candidate – “What happens when atoms colder than outer space are spun around?“
- People’s Choice: Juliana González-Tobón, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology doctoral candidate – “Can bacteria smell their food?“
- Sebastian Diaz Angel, history doctoral candidate – “Nuclear excavations to dam the Amazon, clear the jungles, and prevent Communism (1964-1973)“
- Fernanda Fontenele, mechanical engineering doctoral candidate – “The tension of a crush“
- Shagun Gupta, computational biology doctoral candidate – “Sparking joy with LAVA!“
- Andrew Legan, neurobiology and behavior doctoral candidate – “Chemical communication in wasps“
- Yanle Lu, civil and environmental engineering doctoral candidate – “How long can we trust a model prediction?“
2021 Finalists
- First Place: Bhargav Sanketi, biochemistry, molecular, and cell biology doctoral candidate – “To be or ‘knot’ to be – blueprint to a small intestine“
- Second Place: Rachel Allison, food science and technology doctoral candidate – “What CAN we do about stinky wine?“
- People’s Choice: Kara Fikrig, entomology doctoral candidate – “Are mosquitoes picky eaters?“
- Xiangkun (Elvis) Cao, mechanical engineering doctoral candidate – “Turning our carbon liability into an opportunity“
- Olivia Graham, ecology and evolutionary biology doctoral candidate – “Small bugs, big impacts: Herbivores, seagrass, and disease“
- Jessica Maya, genetics, genomics, and development doctoral candidate – “Fueling the cells in chronic fatigue syndrome“
- Seema Singh, city and regional planning doctoral candidate – “Women and transport: What are the planners missing?“
- Alan Sulpizio, biochemistry, molecular, and cell biology doctoral candidate – “Legionella, aliens of the microscopic world“
2019 Finalists
- First Place: Teddy Yesudasan, plant breeding and genetics – “What Makes a Red Potato Red?”
- Second Place: Shao-Pei Chou – genetics, genomics, and development – “Decoding the 2% That Makes Us Human“
- People’s Choice: Pamela Meyerhofer, policy analysis and management – “Paid Family Leave and Fertility
- Katherine Adler, civil and environmental engineering – “Making Waves to Competitively Produce Biofuel
- Cassandra Benson, economics – “Born on the Wrong Day?”
- Michelle Duong, food science and gechnology – “Franken-phage to Save the Day”
- Ashwariya Lahariya, fiber science and apparel design – “What if Your Clothes Can Warn You of Dangerously High Carbon Dioxide Levels”
- Jeffrey Pea, biomedical and biological sciences – “Oh-No Varies! Tales of DNA and Infertility”
- Maria Sapar, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology – “How do Phagocytes Recognize Degenerating Neurons?”
- Robert Swanda, biomedical and biological sciences – “Why the Quality, Not the Quantity, of your Protein Matters”
2018 Finalists
- First Place and Co-People’s Choice: Jason Guss, biomedical engineering – “My ‘Theces’ on Feces May Make Your Bones Stronger“
- Second Place and Co-People’s Choice: Derek Holyoak, biomedical engineering – “OA, No Way: A Simple Approach to Treat Osteoarthritis (OA)“
- Hugo Milan, biological and environmental engineering – “Cool Technologies for Happier Cows“
- Carol-Rose Little, linguistics – “What Can the Ch’ol Language Tell Us About Grammar?“
- Sabrina Solouki, immunology and infectious disease – “Vaccines Build Armies“
- Mengran Wang, biophysics – “Three Photon Microscopy – Seeing Deeper Inside the Brain“
- Divya Shiroor, molecular and integrative physiology – “Regeneration 101: Lessons from Flatworms“
- William Pennock, civil and environmental engineering – “Better Models Lead to Better Water Treatment Designs for the World“
2017 Finalists
- First Place: Kristina Smiley – “Prolactin: It’s Not Just for Lactation“
- Second Place: Prateek Sehgal – “Using Sound Waves to Separate Cancer Particles“
- People’s Choice: Xiangkun “Elvis” Cao – “FeverPhone“
- Aravind Natarajan – “Glyco-conjugates: Ushering in a Revolution in Therapeutics“
- David Gludish – “Where does HIV hide? ‘Tissue is the issue’“
- Fiona Harnischfeger – “Bringing Tasty Back: Restoring taste function to combat obesity“
- Heather Callaway – “Viral Oragami: Understanding Canine Parvovirus Infection“
- Kristen Brochu – “Manipulating Microbes: Probiotics or Bees“
- Mardochee Reveil – “Materials for next-generation computing devices“
- Mary Centrella – “Wild Bees As Pollination Insurance“
- Olivia White – “Rightsizing Gets It Wrong“
- Thedore Harwood – “How to Read the Best Book: St. Augustine on the Interpretation of Scripture“