Anna Webb wins Sussex Three Minute Thesis Competition
Anna Webb being awarded first prize by Prof. Michael Davies
Congratulations to Anna Webb from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences who was awarded first place in the University’s first ever Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on Wednesday 8th June.
Taking place in the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, the audience were treated to a mix of concise, interesting presentations with twelve entries on a wide variety of subjects, from autonomous robots through to Hawai’in poetry.
The judging panel which consisted of of Professor Vicky Lebeau (Director of the Doctoral School), Dr Mary Henes (South and East Area Director of The Brilliant Club) and Paul Roberts (Assistant Director of the Doctoral School), considered the speakers on criteria such as clarity, enthusiasm, and performance.
The 3MT prize winners
First prize of a £1,000 cheque was awarded to Anna for her presentation on ‘Quantum Computing with Single Atoms’. Emma Scanlan took second prize (an iPad Air) for ‘Poetry and Politics in Hawai’i’, and the People’s Choice award of an iPad Mini, decided by popular ballot, went to Mahmoud Bukar Maina for his talk on ‘Amyloid Beta Protein: Key to Alzheimer’s Disease Progression’.
The prizes were presented by Professor Michael Davies (Pro Vice Chancellor - Research), who praised the knowledge and enthusiasm demonstrated by all the speakers. Awarding the first prize, Professor Davies applauded Anna’s ability to make such a complex idea intelligible to non-experts in a very short space of time.
Anna will be entered into the UK semi-final in July 2016, competing against doctoral researchers from other participating universities, with a chance to be in the UK final in September 2016.
Read the Sussex news story.
Interested in taking part next year?
We will be announcing a call for expressions of interest in September 2016 for participants for the next Sussex 3MT competition in June 2017.
Visit the Sussex 3MT webpage to find out more and read testimonials from the 2016 presenters.