Three Minute Thesis

TIME AND PLACE: Thursday, 23rd April, 10–12 at Think Company Event Square (Terkko Health Hub, Haartmaninkatu 4).

PRESENTATIONS: 

• Ada Junquera Mencía: The Architecture of Ovarian Cancer Chemoresistance
• Silviya Hasana: The Brain's Code : Vast Symphony of Neurons That Learns to See The World
• Marcel Gil: Neuroplasticity: nature or nurture?
• Vaishali Chaurasiya: Metabolic and Intercellular Dynamics in Obese White Adipose Tissue
• Naipunya Guruprasad: Why do cervical pre-cancerous lesions regress?
• Matea Radesic: RNA’s hidden language: revealing stress‑induced tRNA modifications
• Krisztina Sipos: Topical tranexamic acid in plastic surgery
• Silvana Bodington Celma: Before the Mind, the Making
• Mai Nguyen: Listening to Cancer's Whispers in Your Blood
• Victor Arias: Turning viruses into cancer treatments
• Shrinidhi Madhusudan: Puberty Neurons and their migration

TIME AND PLACE: Thursday, 23rd April, 14–16 at K1088, Info Centre Korona (Viikinkaari 11).

PRESENTATIONS: 

• Soham Bharadwaj: Big Cells, Big Bloody Problems
• Anni Palvi: Can fertilizing forests help fight climate change?
• Áron Bendegúz Varga: Hot reality of a cold life: temperature's role in depression
• Theo Brown: Protective Colouration in Motion
• Shu Zhang: Activation of VEGF-C/D by plasminogen
• Yunus Vilkkavaara Cankocak: Drivers of Community Biodiversities
• Anqi Peng: Disrupted Dialogues: Mutations in RNA–RNA Interactions and Disease
• Gregory Andreou-Huotari: Temperatures are rising, can plants keep up?
• Meeri Piispa: Phages – Hidden Boosters of Their Microbial Hosts
• Basile Marteau: How does temporary wetlands benefit duck breeding success
• Subij Shakya: The birds and the bees: And what happens to your diet without them?
• Chiara Ottini: Can AI help me in the drug discovery process?
• Jennifer López Ortiz: Changing the shield
• Denis Austin: How trees wear their armour: Modelling bark partitioning after fire

TIME AND PLACE: Monday, 27th April, 14–16 at C124, Exactum (Pietari Kalmin katu 5).

PRESENTATIONS: 

NOTE: Due to fewer registrations at Kumpula and too many registrations at Viikki, some contestants originally registered for Viikki volunteered to present at the Kumpula contest instead in order to balance out the campus contests.

• Katia Sirna: Development of new allosteric modulators of protein kinase C
• Vinaya Venkat: Preparing for the next coronavirus – from the wild to vaccines to diagnostics
• Dumidu Perera: Nature's Blueprints to Rethink Animal Testing
• Mebin George Varghese: Polar bear teeth bear the brunt of climate change
• Dominika Pasik: Can forest air change our climate?
• Idil Muhumed: Unequal Beginnings? Maternal and Child Health in Immigrants
• Emelda Ahongshangbam: A journey to the clouds! Floating through atmospheric chemistry mechanisms.
• Lukas Bornholdt: How would you manage your forest?
• Jun Yang: When, What, and How Much? Stopping the Waste in Model Updating
• Julius Kiuru: Specific lipid binding spots of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

TIME AND PLACE: Wednesday, 29th April, 14–16 at Tekla Hultin (F3003), Main Building (Fabianinkatu 33).

PRESENTATIONS: 

• Timo Kalliokoski: Observing nurses observing patients
• Mamata Raj: From Migration to Empowerment - One Journey, Many Voices
• David Caicedo Sarralde: Seed sovereignty of south-western Colomhia and agroecology policies
• Grace Joplin Ferreira: Behind the mask: the hidden strengths of autistic people
• Matias Muuronen: Cranes in the Sky: Work, Masculinity and the Cost of Care
• Mikhail Bogach: From performance to synergy: Supporting early-stage startup cofounder relations
• Camille Thibert: Democratic Innovations in times of backsliding: solution or illusion?
• Salar Barvary: How to see suffering
• Alex Shapero: Can we outsmart babies when it comes to language?

TIME AND PLACE: Wednesday, 27th May, 17–19 at Think Corner (Yliopistonkatu 4).

FINALISTS: The winners of the campus contests (TBA) will be competing in the 3MT final.

In order to participate, you must be a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and you must not yet have defended your thesis. 

Are only final stage doctoral researchers allowed to participate? No, you need not have a (nearly) finished PhD thesis to participate: we warmly welcome early-stage doctoral researchers to take part, as well. The point of the competition is not to argue for the conclusion of your thesis, but to give a non-specialist audience an idea of why your PhD research is interesting and important.

I competed in 2025, can I participate again in 2026? Yes, you are allowed to participate in the 3MT multiple times during your postgraduate studies.

Workshops

Get competition-ready with our presentation training workshops! The precontest webinar, organised online on 1st April, 13–15, is open and highly recommended to all contestants. The online workshop will cover the basics of preparing your presentation, and you’ll get to ask any questions you may have from Kaskas media’s experts and the contest organisers.

In addition, we will organise, in collaboration with Kaskas media, a live presentation training workshop for the campus contest winners on 12th May, 13–15. In the live workshop, you will receive guidance as well as personal feedback to help you take your presentation to the next level for the final.

Campus contests

Please see the dates and times of the campus contests above. Please note that you should only register for one campus contest. If your research takes place in multiple campuses, we will let you decide which contest you’d prefer to participate in. 

Final

The final will take place at Think Corner on Wednesday, 27th May, 17–19. Please make sure you can make it to the final in case you will be one of the winners (winner, runner-up, or People's Choice) of your campus contest! 

The presentations of the 3MT final will be filmed and pictures and videos of the final may be published on the University of Helsinki’s webpages or social media profile. 

The winner of the 3MT final will receive a 1000€ cash prize. The runner-up and the People’s Choice of the 3MT final will both receive 500€ prizes. (Please note that these prizes are taxable income.)

In addition, we will invite the winner of the 3MT final to represent the University of Helsinki in the in autumn 2026!

• Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum and competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualified. 
• Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g. no poems, raps or songs). 
• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through either movement or speech. 
• A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted (no slide transitions, animations or movement) and is to be presented from the beginning of the oration. 
• No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted. 
• No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment) are permitted. 
• The decision of the adjudicating panel is final. 

Every competitor will be assessed on (1) the comprehension and content of the presentation as well as (2) engagement and communication. The judging panel is composed of 3–5 members representing different fields. Each criterion below is equally weighed.

Comprehension and content

• Presentation provided clear motivation, background and significance to the research question
• Presentation clearly described the research strategy/design and the results/findings of the research
• Presentation clearly described the conclusions, outcomes and impact of the research

Engagement and communication

• The oration was delivered clearly, and the language was appropriate for a non-specialist audience
• The PowerPoint slide was well-defined and enhanced the presentation
• The presenter conveyed enthusiasm for their research and captured and maintained the audience’s attention

Please in order to register as a contestant. Registration for contestants closes after 23rd March.

Spots are limited! If registrations for any campus contest exceed capacity, we’ll ensure fair representation from all doctoral programmes.