Doctoral researchers across 35 UK institutions are taking part in Three Minute Thesis (3MT), an academic competition designed to improve participants' presentation and communication skills and raise awareness of their research area.
Using just one slide, contestants are challenged to bring their research to life in an engaging way, using language understandable to a non-specialist audience, before the three-minute bell chimes.
Fifteen researchers took part in 'Bristol's answer to the TED talks' at the semi-finals on Wednesday, 3 June, and the best eight participants have been selected to compete in the Bristol finals on 10 June, from 2pm to 3pm in the Winston Theatre at Bristol SU.
The competition has become hugely successful since it was created by the University of Queensland, Australia in 2007, and has extended to higher education institutions around the globe.
The Bristol winner will go through to a national semi-final on 13 July, where six candidates will be chosen to compete in the UK final to be held at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference on 8 September.
At the UK national final, a judges' choice winner and a people's choice winner will be chosen. The judges' choice winner will receive a £3,000 grant to spend on public engagement activity, sponsored by Research Councils UK and the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).
The Bristol finalists are:
- Emma Liu (School of Earth Sciences) - 'When fire meets ice'
- Catherine Gilmore (School of Clinical Sciences) - 'The role the placenta plays in fetal health'
- Robin Neville (Department of Aerospace Engineering) - 'Folding the future'
- Audrey Reeves (School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies) - 'Pleasurable war? Wartime heritage as tourist attraction'
- Charlotte Chamberlain (School of Social and Community Medicine) - 'What is fair when it comes to cancer?'
- Hannah-Marie Chidwick (Department of Classics and Ancient History) - 'United we fall: Multiplicity in Lucan's Civil War'
- Thomas Farrugia (School of Chemistry) - 'Protein Power - Using Nature's Nanoscale Assembly Lines'
- Jocelyn Cherry (School of Social and Community Medicine) - 'Children's Senses and Injury'
More information about the finalists is available on the Bristol Doctoral College website. Follow #Bris3MT on Twitter for updates.
The final on Wednesday 10 June is free and open to all. Attendees are requested to register in advance.
The Bristol 3MT is organised by the Bristol Doctoral College in collaboration with the Bristol SU Postgraduate Network.