Anastasia Shavrova, a master’s student in biology at Queen’s University, will join 20 doctoral and master’s degree students from across Ontario to present her research at the provincial finals of the Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT Ontario) on Thursday, April 14 in Waterloo.  

The 20 competitors in the provincial competition are all winners of local competitions hosted by every university in Ontario.

“This whole experience started with me just telling a story about a little fruit fly and trying to show people how much I love what I do. I am so honoured and excited to be representing Queen’s University at the Ontario 3MT,” says Ms. Shavrova. “Thank you to everyone involved for this amazing opportunity and I hope to make you proud. Cha Gheill!”

Sitting across from the competitors will be a panel of judges with a wide range of backgrounds and interests. Invoking images of “American Idol,” the 3MT Ontario judges will score the quality of the presentations and the presenters’ ability to engage the audience. The judges for the 3MT Ontario are:

• Rob Baker, guitarist for The Tragically Hip
• David Meyers, chief executive officer of Iceberg Vodka
• Susan Anzolin, chief financial officer for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario)
• Ken Steele, chief futurist at Eduvation
• Gohar Ashoughian, university librarian, Wilfrid Laurier University

The judges will select winners of the 3MT Ontario, who will receive $2,000 in total prize money. As well, the top five presenters will move onto the national level, an online competition coordinated by the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies.

“The Ontario 3MT is a much anticipated annual event since Queen’s hosted the first provincial competition in 2013. We are thrilled that Anastasia will represent Queen’s – she brings science and passion together in a way that completely draws the audience in; let’s hope the judges will be equally captivated” says Brenda Brouwer, Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies.

The 3MT is a communications competition for graduate students. Developed in Australia by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT challenges students to explain their research in plain language in just three minutes. This is not an easy task considering a full graduate thesis can be 80,000 words in length.

The 3MT is hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University and is open to the public. A livestream of the event can be found at livestream.com/cigionline/events/5142325 and http://www.queensu.ca/3mt/ontario-3mt.