3MT produces new round of stars

L – R: Professor Robert Saint, Sharon Ferrier, Meaghan King, Robert Trott, Chelsea Mauch, Phillip Kavanagh, Saira Ali, Antoine Champreux, Paul Willis, Vitalis Mwinyuri, Heath Pillen and Liam Howard-Fabretto

Nutrition and Dietetics researcher Chelsea Mauch went through to the top 10 of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

After winning the Flinders University 3MT event, she then presented her ‘Mobile apps for supporting healthy family meals’ PhD summary among 58 other Australian university representatives in Queensland on 27 September to became one of only 10 finalists in this year’s national Three Minute Thesis final event.

The overall winner was Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Yasmin Mustapha Kamil who won with her work on a quick, cheap and accurate diagnostic tool for dengue fever. Ms Kamil also took out the People’s Choice award and $6,000 in prize money.

Hosted by the University of Queensland and sponsored by Springer Nature, the Asia-Pacific regional competition features competitors representing universities from across Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, North-East Asia and South-East Asia.

In the Flinders final competition on 31 August, Mrs Mauch from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences took out the top prize, winning $2,000 for her presentation on mobile apps to support healthier family meals. Ms Mauch impressed the judges with her warm and animated style that succinctly communicated her research.

Both the Runner-up and People’s Choice prizes went to Saira Ali, who began her talk with a fun and eye-catching slide that kicked off a short but serious discussion on cancer, and her promising research into specific long RNAs which combine with butyrate from potatoes to treat bowel cancer. Ms Ali took home $1,500 for her combined wins.

With each talk demonstrating the engaging and succinct presentation skills that the finalists had honed to the highest level over the three months of the competition, judging was no easy feat for the three communications experts recruited for the important task – Associate Professor Paul Willis of Media Engagement Services, Ms Sharon Ferrier of Persuasive Presentations and Ms Meaghan King of the YWCA .

Ms Mauch will head to Brisbane later in September to compete for the 2018 Asia-Pacific 3MT prize of $5,000.

The final was recorded and can be viewed in its entirety via the Flinders University 3MT webpage.

2018 3MT finalists:

Below: Chelsea Mauch presented with the 3MT first prize by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robert Saint. (Presentation: Mobile apps for supporting healthy family meals)