A PhD candidate working on a cheaper and more environmentally sustainable battery has won The University of Queensland’s 2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) final.
Emily Cooper from UQ’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering won both first prize and People’s Choice Award for her presentation – The best mattress is a zinc mattress – explaining her research on sodium metal batteries as a cheap and effective method to store renewable energy.
She was one of eight finalists given just three minutes to present their research and its significance to a general audience, supported by a single PowerPoint slide.
Ms Cooper will now compete against more than 50 PhD candidates from universities across Australia, New Zealand and Asia in next month’s Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition.
She has also been entered into the U21 3MT Competition, with winners to be announced in January 2024.
“Competing in the 3MT has given me an insight into people’s perceptions and understanding of battery technology,” Ms Cooper said.
“The experience has been really helpful in explaining my research outside of academia, and being able to articulate my research to anyone in less than three minutes has been hugely valuable.”
Ms Cooper plans to use the $5000 prize money to further her study.
“Battery research can be quite expensive as we need very pure materials, so the prize money will help me to purchase new experimental materials,” she said.
UQ Graduate School Acting Dean Professor Pierre Benckendorff said the 3MT competition was a great way to demonstrate UQ’s research opportunities to the broader community.
“PhD candidates who compete in this competition really benefit from sharing their research and its impact with a wider audience,” Professor Benckendorff said.
“Congratulations to all our finalists and thank you to our sponsors, particularly our platinum sponsor UniSuper, for supporting this event.”
Elcin Tuzel from UQ’s School of Economics was the 2023 3MT runner up with her presentation – Child Abuse and Suicidal Thoughts in Children.
The origins of the 3MT are credited to the then Dean of the UQ Graduate School Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson who found inspiration in the 2007 millennium drought.
“Every Queensland resident was issued an egg-timer to remind them to limit their showers to just three minutes,” Emeritus Professor Lawson said.
“Coincidently, at the time the Graduate School had been identifying the sorts of skills research higher degree students needed – one being the basic need to communicate their work in a variety of situations to non-specialist audiences.
“I put two and three together, and that’s how the 3MT was born.
“It’s a short, sharp explanation of a research area for a lay audience to prepare students for a successful career in research.”
The first official 3MT competition was held at UQ in 2008, with 160 Higher Degree Research candidates competing.
There are now 3MT competitions in 900 higher education institutions across 85 countries.
Emeritus Professor Lawson said it was gratifying to see the original goal of 3MT has been preserved.
“I am so pleased that a concept that we designed for UQ student professional development has been adopted by universities all over the world,” he said.
“The competition hasn’t been trivialised and is still seen as useful across all research disciplines.”
Ms Cooper joins a prestigious list of 3MT alumni, including 2011 winner Matthew Thompson, a cognitive scientist and Director of the Perceptual Expertise Advanced Research Lab at Murdoch University and 2014 winner Megan Rossi, best-selling author and founder of The Gut Health Doctor.
The 2023 UQ 3MT prizes are sponsored by UniSuper, Boeing Australia and Alumni Friends.
Click here for a full list of the 2023 3MT finalists.
