2024 MAGS Three-Minute Thesis Competition

The 3MT is an academic competition that challenges PhD and Master’s students to describe their research to a general audience within three minutes. 3MT celebrates the discoveries made by research students and encourages communication about the importance of their research to the broader community.

The Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) held the MAGS Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition on April 5 during the MAGS annual meeting (April 3-5, 2024) at the LeMeridien Hotel St. Louis Clayton, MO. We celebrate all who participated. Special congratulations to our two winners.

3MT is a registered trademark of the University of Queensland.

MAGS 2024 3MT Competition, April 5, 2024, Clayton St. Louis, MO

  • 1st Place – Brian Choi, Loyola University of Chicago: Discovering New Bacteria Species in Your Urinary Tract

  • 2nd Place and People’s Choices – Emma Elizabeth Sabu Kattuman, University of Toledo: Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptors Promote Melanoma Progression and Metastasis

MAGS 2023 3MT Competition, March 31, 2023, Chicago, IL

Winners, left to right:

      • 1st Place – Harshita “Hershey” Kondeti, Loyola University Chicago: Straight out of a science fiction novel: The road to curing Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease
      • 2nd Place – Paulina Eberts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities: Decoding blood-brain barrier dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease
      • People’s Choice – Valeria Andrade, University of Cincinnati: Recovering function after stroke: Is movement creativity the solution?

MAGS 2022 3MT Competition, April 8, 2022, Milwaukee, WI

Left to right: 2nd Place – Desire Ortiz Torres, University of Illinois Chicago; 1st Place – Tabitha DiBacco, Western Michigan University; People’s Choice – Mehreen Iftikhar, Kansas State University

MAGS 2021 3MT Competition Awardees (Virtual, Spring 2021)

1st Place – Ali Rassi, University of Oklahoma

“From Bench-top to the Operating Rooms: 3D Printed Implants”

2nd Place – Vishakh Iyer, Indiana University

““Weeding” Out the Opioid Epidemic”

3rd Place – Sai Siva Kare, University of Illinois Chicago

“Gift of Vision”

MAGS 2020 3MT Competition Awardees (Virtual, Fall 2020)

1st Place – Megan LaFollette, Purdue University

2nd Place – Varadha Balaji Venkadakrishnan, Cleveland State University

“PKN1 is an alternative target in advanced prostate cancer”

3rd Place – Amber Urban, Ball State University

“Menstruation: How we tell the story”

MAGS 2019 3MT Competition, March 22, 2019, St. Louis

Left to right: 2nd Place – Monica Arul, University of Notre Dame; 1st Place – Chris Omni, Kansas State University; People’s Choice – Teng Keng Vang, Miami University; MAGS 3MT Committee Chair, Nicole Lounsbery, South Dakota State University