Jerald Pinson wins UF’s second annual Three Minute Thesis competition

April 13, 2015

“I have three minutes to get you excited about ferns,” began botany Ph.D. student Jerald Pinson’s presentation on his research into fern reproduction.

The reaction from the crowd of about 100 people and the combined scores of five judges signaled Pinson’s success, and he was awarded the first-place prize of $500 in UF’s second annual Three Minute Thesis, or 3MT, competition.

Ph.D. students Shraddha Sundaram and William Brooks took home the runner-up and people’s choice awards, respectively.

3MT is a competition developed by the University of Queensland in 2008 that challenges graduate students to present their research in three minutes to an intelligent, non-specialist audience. Competitors are scored based on audience engagement, audience comprehension and their own communication skills.

From four preliminary rounds held in March, 10 finalists with a broad selection of research interests ranging from stroke treatments to manatee migration patterns were selected. Runner-up Shraddha Sundaram’s research focuses on understanding social distance between Asian Indians and Indian-Americans, and the people’s choice winner William Brooks is researching developing a new method to deliver insulin for diabetics.

Pinson’s own research into ferns – titled “What confers the ability to forego the production of a sporophyte in ferns? A comparative transcriptomic approach.” – seeks to find out why some ferns don’t have to produce a reproductive spore. The answers have the potential to inform more research into the evolution of life. His first-place prize, he said, will go toward paying for his dissertation research.

“I had a great time presenting, as well as meeting other competitors doing awesome research,” Pinson said. “It’s really uplifting to know that other people find (my research) interesting as well.”