Three minute thesis

The three-minute thesis (3MT) competition was developed by the University of Queensland to celebrate the exciting research conducted by doctoral research students.

Since the inaugural event in 2008 the popularity of the competition has reached truly global heights with 900 universities holding events across 85 countries.

This year, we launched our own competition to decide who will represent the University at the national 3MT competition. Nine researchers from across all three Faculties presented in front of a judging panel and a live audience. 

Meet this year's 3MT researchers and find out more about their fascinating work.

Finn McCully Black Legged Kittiwakes Screaming on the Ice in the Svalbard Islands in Norway

Lovebirds or loathebirds? Personality and divorce in an Arctic seabird

Parental care of seabirds and how individual differences in behaviour and personality impacts how they rear their young, especially how parents work together.

Chloe Gray Postindustrial Cityscape

Using low-cost sensors to improve air pollution monitoring

Investigating the properties of particulate matter (PM). PM is a type of air pollution made up of tiny particles of solids or liquids that are in the air such as dust, dirt, soot, smoke or drops of liquid.

Kindah Ali Photograph of a child in a displaced persons camp with high fence

Use of children’s images by media during the wars

What is the purpose of publishing these pictures and why are children being exposed to the conflicts and politics of war?

Ieva Andrulyte Person in an medical scanning machine with healthcare professionals in the distance

Language and the brain's underground trains

Studying language in the healthy human brain using advanced MRI techniques to understand why some people are left-lateralized for language, whereas others are not.

Paige Monaghan Clipboard with missing person on it

A sea of blurred faces - how agencies can work together to save lives

Over 350,000 reports of missing people are logged with the police every year. How can we improve how police and partner agencies work together during a missing child investigation?

George Jones Person working on computer code at a computer

Non-myopic approaches to sensing and surveying

Using metrics to developing non-myopic algorithms for tracking and surveying environments.

Louise Evans Scrabble style dice with POETRY formed

The poet as #influencer in Spanish literature

Connecting digital poetry published on social media with poetry from the patronage economy of Golden Age Spain.

Mehdi Anhichem Digital design of an airplane in flight

Designing tomorrow's aircrafts

Digital engineering is an opportunity to overcome challenges. Scaled wind tunnel experiments can be used to collect air flow data and obtain a better overall estimate on the design space.

Sarah Ellis An old book with an illustration on the left

Through the (neo)picaresca looking glass

This research calls for a re-investigation into this mechanism of literary frameworking, given that the picaresque has begun reappearing in the 20th century and beyond amidst a new wave of crises in Spain.

Photograph of a person holding up a certificate

Three Minute Thesis - The Winners

Find out more about the University of Liverpool's 3MT 2023 event, including who was crowned winner and who took home the people's choice award.