31 doctoral candidates from the University of Luxembourg participated in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. The competition was organised for the first time in Luxembourg by the student association LuxDoc in order to promote research to a general and non-scientific audience. The presentations covered a broad variety of topics, ranging from economics to space research.
The participants explained their research in 3-minute videos, using only a single slide as visual support. Three doctoral candidates from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) won prizes for the best presentations.
Explaining science in only three minutes
Researchers are generally used to comprehensive and very detailed presentations using scientific jargon, which is sometimes hard to understand, even for scientists from other fields. At the same time, the public is highly interested in the research conducted at the University. To bridge this gap, LuxDoc decided to organise the 3MT competition for the first time in Luxembourg. “We are very happy to have found several excellent partners. They kindly sponsored the event and made it possible to organise it in a short time”, says Miriam Fougeras, president of LuxDoc and part of the organisation team.
“The way you need to design your presentation is actually quite different from what we are used to in the scientific community,” comments Sònia Sabaté Soler, doctoral candidate in the Developmental and Cellular Biology group and one of the two LCSB laureates who received a runner-up prize. “It is more like you are explaining your research to a friend who is doing something completely different – but all in 3 minutes!”
“It was an interesting experience and very different from a live presentation,” recalls Kobi Wasner, winner of the first prize and people’s choice voting who is currently a doctoral candidate in the Molecular & Functional Neurobiology group. “I really enjoyed sharing my research with those who do not have any science or biology background, as I can see how interesting it can be for them,” he adds. In his video, Kobi explains how researchers at the LCSB are able to turn skin samples into stem cells to investigate Parkinson’s disease.
Laure Pauly, the other runner-up, from the Translational Neuroscience group, adds: “It was a great opportunity to excite others about my project and make them curious to know more. I can only recommend everyone to participate in such events!”
A compilation of all videos of the competition and further information can be found on the LuxDoc website.