Doctoral students George Todd, Casey Ernest, John Ampomah, Karen Allman and Anna Heinzmann challenged themselves and each other in the annual Three Minute Thesis competition on Feb. 25 in the SGA Chamber in the Millennium Student Center.
The competition tests each participant’s ability to presents their research to a general audience in three minutes or less, using a single, static PowerPoint slide. They are then judged for the quality of their content as well as their engagement and communication skills.
“The Three Minute Thesis competition is valuable because it requires graduate students to clearly explain the purpose and impact of their research to a broad, nonspecialist audience,” said Amber Reinhart, UMSL’s vice provost for the Graduate School and Academic Affairs. “Distilling complex work into three minutes helps students sharpen their message, build confidence and better understand the broader significance of their scholarship. These communication skills are essential across academic, professional and public settings.”
Competitions like UMSL’s originated at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, in 2008, though the popularity of 3MT competitions has spread across the globe. They now take place in over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.
They are intended to showcase doctoral research while fostering academic, presentation and research communication skills. Each of the UMSL competitors was expected to share their work in a language appropriate to a nonspecialist audience while making use of a single, static PowerPoint slide.
“Everyone was so well prepared to relay the excitement and impact of their work to the audience,” Graduate School Faculty Fellow Cynthia Dupureur said. “They had to do that with clarity in under 3 minutes. That would be challenging even for a senior level researcher, and yet we saw it over and over again. We are immensely proud of our 3MT winners.”
Ernest, pursuing her PhD in biology, took first place for her presentation, “Domestication: The Doom of Ex Situ Conservation.” She received $350 and earned the chance to compete in the 2026 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT® Three Minute Thesis Competition on March 27 at the Marriott at Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ampomah, pursuing his PhD in criminology and criminal justice, received the $200 second-place prize for his presentation, “Vigilante Justice in Ghana: Does a Visible Police Force Reduce Support for Instant Justice?”
Todd, also a biology PhD student, won third place and $100 for his presentation, “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me – Wait, What Are You Doing on That Flower?”
Allman, who is pursuing her EDD in educational practice through the College of Education, received the People’s Choice Award for her thesis presentation, “Intentional Intellectual Investment: Increasing Student Awareness of the Need to Engage for College Success.”
This photograph was taken by UMSL photographer Derik Holtmann and is the latest to be featured in Eye on UMSL. View more UMSL photos by visiting the UMSL Flickr and Instagram accounts.
