Each student had 3 minutes and 1 slide to present their thesis using accessible language. Experts from the University of Minnesota (UMN), where this kind of competition is well established, helped the students prepare their presentations; an example of the increased collaboration between Aurora and UMN described in the declaration of intent signed last year.
The contestants approached the task with imagination, humour and passion for their subjects and it proved very difficult for the evaluation committee to select a winner. In the end, three winners were selected:
- Dona Geagea, PhD student in Water Governance at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Anna Selbmann, PhD student in Marine Biology at the University of Iceland
- Lucie Kotková, PhD student in Forensic Genetics and Epigenetics at Palacký University Olomouc
The competition was livestreamed and is available to watch again via a recorded livestream.
Dona says about her experiences: "The best wins are when you don’t see them coming, give your best and enjoy the process. I am so grateful to have participated in the Aurora #3MT competition - “One stage, one slide, 3 minutes”! I had never been this challenged to simplify my jargon, focus on a hook, capture my entire PhD research in 3 minutes while telling a story, and understand where an audience loses attention and the chances I get to grab it again. The best part? I met some amazing people, doing incredible research from across such diverse disciplines!"
The VU delegation that travelled to Iceland consisted of PhD candidates Dona Geagea, Margherita Martorana and Karin Kee. Sem Barendse, Research Associate at the Athena Institute, delivered a workshop on Co-Creating Science Stories.
