The Graduate College at Iowa State University hosted its eighth annual three-minute thesis competition final to showcase the best of the best within the college in terms of communication and public speaking while making complex research concepts understandable to the general public. 

Eight graduate students competed Thursday in Reiman Gardens Auditorium, both in-person and virtually. The eight students were chosen from a previous competition held Oct. 25, which included 122 applicants from all academic colleges. 

William Graves, dean of the Graduate College, described how the college “works to make Iowa State a great place for graduate students to earn advanced credentials and prepare for careers as leaders and innovators.” 

This competition is sponsored by 3MT, which stands for three-minute thesis, and “is for students to convey their thesis research in clear, relatable ways within a strict three-minute time limit,” according to Graves. “3MT competitions are held at universities all around the world, where they are recognized for building students’ communication skills and also for showcasing the important scholarship that graduate students conduct as they earn advanced degrees.” 

Each student presents their three-minute thesis in turn, presenting their own research, observations and experiments through a speech with words they have edited and rewritten hundreds of times before. 

Lexi Frese, a graduate student in biomedical sciences, was one of the eight competitors with a presentation titled “Interspecies Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease,” which aims to raise awareness about her research on chronic wasting disease transmission between deer and other species. 

When asked about the competition preparation, Frese said that in addition to the hours of experiments and research, she spent “up to 10–12 hours altogether in the week prior to the competition,” memorizing, practicing and perfecting her speech. 

“The hardest part was finding the right wording to explain very niche research to a very broad audience, which took a lot of rewriting,” Frese said, explaining how difficult it is to communicate complex concepts in such a short amount of time. “I had to present it to my friends and family to see if my speech made sense to others.” 

The presentations featured a variety of styles. Topics were diverse, ranging from pork diseases, as presented by Rabsa Naseer, to Iowa’s algae, as presented by Grace Jackson, fuel, as presented by Binayak Raj Pandey, and even baboons, as presented by Kale Hawks. 

Larissa Holtmyer-Jones, president and CEO of the Iowa State University Foundation, Iowa House Rep. Carter Nordman and Billie Rhamy, talent brand manager at Vermeer Corporation comprised the group tasked with judging the winners. 

Ashwini Rangaraj, a graduate student in genetics development and cell biology, won the event with her presentation titled, “Characterizing a Novel DNA Element in the Placenta.” Rangaraj received a $500 scholarship and the opportunity to compete against other schools at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools competition in April in St. Louis. 

Alexander Volkov, a graduate student in chemistry, took second place with a presentation titled “Efficient and Recyclable Capture of Rare-Earth Elements by Covalent Organic Frameworks,” and Oluwatobiloba Aminu, a graduate student in bioinformatics and computational biology, took the people’s choice award with a presentation titled “Understanding Nanog’s Role in Cell Differentiation.” They both received a $250 scholarship. 

The three-minute thesis competition provides students with a professional development opportunity as well as an opportunity to disseminate their research to a wider audience. Attendees had an opportunity to learn about the research being conducted at Iowa State.