Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) – The Winners 2024

Dina-Leigh Simons won the 2024 University of Liverpool 'Three Minute Thesis'

Dina-Leigh Simons, from the School of Environmental Sciences, was crowned winner of the 2024 University of Liverpool ‘Three Minute Thesis’ (3MT®) competition for her presentation ‘eDNA: The Final Frontier for Marine Conservation’.

Dina-Leigh received a prize of a £100 voucher and will go on to represent the University at the UK quarter finals competition to be hosted by Vitae in June.

Josephine Pedder (below with guest judge Rachel Cox, Vitae) from the Dept. Pharmacology and Therapeutics, was selected as this year Judge's runner up who also impressed the Judging Panel with her presentation on ‘Overcoming the blood brain barrier: the biggest challenge in brain cancer drug discovery’.

Richard Berwick (below), from the Pain Research Institute, won the People’s Choice Award, which was voted for by the audience on the day, with his presentation ‘Maria's Story: Unravelling the Autoimmune Basis of Fibromyalgia Syndrome’.

The University of Liverpool’s 3MT® grand final took place on 23 May in the Spine and saw nine researchers from across all three Faculties present in front of a panel of judges and a live audience to be crowned Liverpool’s champion.

The presentations covered a diverse range of research topics from tomorrow’s aircrafts to Spanish literature.

Dr James Howard, Director of the Academy, said:

“Many congratulations to Dina-Leigh and to Richard on their awards. The 3MT® Final is fast establishing itself as one of the most highly anticipated events in the University calendar. This year’s finalists and winners again highlighted the sheer depth of talent in our postgraduate community and the Judges were hugely impressed by all the presentations. 3MT® provides a fantastic development opportunity and I’d encourage PGRs across the University to consider entering the competition in 2025.

 What is 3MT®?

The 3MT® challenges researchers to present their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, using just one slide.

It was developed by the University of Queensland in 2008 and since its inaugural event the popularity of the competition has reached truly global heights with 900 universities holding events across 85 countries.

The finalists

Selected from a series of Faculty heats, the nine University of Liverpool entries who made it to the final were:

Shagufta Batliwala, Science and Engineering, Switch to Sustainability

Richard Berwick, Health and Life Sciences, Maria's Story: Unravelling the Autoimmune Basis of Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Thomas Conley, Health and Life Sciences, Using The Smell Of Faeces To Enable Personalised Treatment In Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Holly Dempster-Edwards, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Way You Make Me Feel: Crusading and Emotions, Past and Present

Ruth Neville, Science and Engineering, From Past Patterns to Future Prospects: Understanding International Student Applications in UK Higher Education

Josephine Pedder, Health and Life Sciences, Overcoming the blood brain barrier: the biggest challenge in brain cancer drug discovery

Chrisie Pullin, Humanities and Social Sciences, Exploring Moral Injury in the Ambulance Service

Dina-Leigh Simons, Science and Engineering, eDNA: The Final Frontier for Marine Conservation

Rim Yassine-Kassab, Humanities and Social Sciences, The medina's voices: a holistic understanding of continuity for urban heritage

Pictures by Gareth Jones