Three minutes. Eleven of Canada's best minds. The power of the spoken word. That's the formula for Canada's Three Minute Thesis competition.
A national champion is chosen from eleven finalists from three regional competitions (Western, Eastern, and Ontario). Both master’s and doctoral level students are eligible. More than 35 graduate schools from across Canada participated in the English competition in 2015. Regional competitors are asked to present the complexities of their research in an engaging and accessible way before a live audience. French competitors participate in Canada’s 3MT sister competition sponsored by ACFAS.
• One take.
• One static slide.
• No props.
Video recordings of those presentations will then be profiled for a two-week period on the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies website. Non-specialist judges will choose the national winner and a runner-up from those videos.
From 2020 on, CAGS will have a showcase of 3 Minute Thesis presentations (not a competition) from around the country.
This year's judges are Dr Catherine Mavriplis; Dr Ahmed Ali; Tom Howell & Nicola Luksic, Producers, CBC Ideas from the Trenches.
2019 Results
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Newsha Arezi | University of Concordia | Deliver it to the right address |
| 2nd Place | Shruthi Budnar Subramanya | University of Alberta | Partial Upgrading: A quest to unclog the arteries of Canada's Oil Sands Econonomy |
| People's Choice | Laura Rios Carreno | University of Calgary | Modification of asphalt with reactive polymers for quality enhancement of pavement. |
This year's judges are Alejandro Adem, Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs; Valerie Walker, Vice President, Talent and Skills, Business Council of Canada; Tom Howell and Nicola Luksic, Producers, CBC Ideas.
Results 2018
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Chidera Nwaroh | University of Calgary | A Virtual Biopsy: Detecting Metabolite Changes in the Brain |
| 2nd Place | Gregory Lui | University of Waterloo | Photocatalysts: Using Today's Waste to Power the Future |
| People's Choice | Gregory Lui | University of Waterloo | Photocatalysts: Using Today's Waste to Power the Future |
This year's judges are the lead guitarist of the Tragically Hip (Rob Baker), a radio production duo (Tom Howell and Nicola Luksic - Ideas from the Trenches) and entrepreneur Ian Baines, join forces this spring to judge Canada’s 3 Minute Thesis Competition.
Results 2017
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Shanthanu Krishna Kumar (Plant Agriculture) | University of Guelph | Enhancing Shelf Life of Fruit Using Hexanal |
| 2nd Place | Richard Kil (Chemistry) | University of Toronto | Blood Testing with Baker's Yeast in Developing Countries |
| People's Choice | Shanthanu Krishna Kumar (Plant Agriculture) | University of Guelph | Enhancing Shelf Life of Fruit Using Hexanal |
This year's judges are the lead guitarist of the Tragically Hip (Rob Baker), a radio production duo (Tom Howell and Nicola Luksic - Ideas from the Trenches) and the director-general of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Dr. Danika Goosney), join forces this spring to judge Canada’s 3 Minute Thesis Competition.
Results 2016
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Gah Jone Won (Optometry & Vision Science) | University of Waterloo | The Development of an Antibody-Drug Conjugate to Specifically Target and Soften the Crystalline Lens |
| 2nd Place | Ana Maria Medina Ramirez | Concordia University | Production of Al-Ni foams by PM route using dolomite as a foaming agent |
| People's Choice | Carly Cameron (Applied Health Sciences) | Brock University | "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall..." |
This year’s judges are Dr. Chad Gaffield, University of Ottawa Research Chair in Digital Scholarship; Alejandro Adem, Mathematician and CEO of MITACS; and Sophie Nadeau, communications consultant and former TV producer. They focused on how finalists told the story of their research, with a particular emphasis on clarity and passion.
Results 2015
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Elizabeth Watt (Physics & Astronomy) | University of Calgary | Permanent Breast Seed Implant: Improving patient experience in early-stage breast cancer |
| 2nd Place | Rebecca (DeLong) Dielschneider (Immunology) | University of Manitoba | Lysosomes as targets in Leukemia |
| People's Choice | Chenman (Cara) Yin (Physics | Queen's University | Seeing the world at the tip of a laser beam |
Results 2014
| Place | Name | University | Title of Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | Joseph Donohue (Biochemical Engineering) | Western University | Scale-Up of a Circulating Fluidized-bed Bioreactor |
| 2nd Place | Kyle Massia (History) | Saint Mary's University | Crossing Past and Present - Ampelmann and the Memory of East Germany |
| People's Choice | Kirk Luther (Psychology) | Memorial University | Child Interviewing Practices in Police Organisations |