An 80,000-word thesis would take 9 hours to present. Their challenge is to do it in 3 minutes!

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) celebrates the exciting research conducted by Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Professional Doctorate (Research) candidates. It is an international academic competition developed by the University of Queensland to cultivate candidate’s academic, presentation, and research communication skills.

You are invited to watch the faculty heats' winners battle it out in the UTS 3 Minute Thesis Finals, where you can vote in the People's Choice Award category. Meet our finalists!

With just three minutes to give a compelling presentation on their thesis topic and its significance, the 3MT competition encourages research candidates to consolidate their ideas and outline their research discoveries. It challenges them to tell the story of their research to a non-specialist audience: what they are doing, why it matters, and what they hope to achieve ... all in just three minutes!

There are 3 prizes up for grabs. The first-place winner will receive $3,000 and represent UTS at the 2024 Virtual Asia-Pacific Competition against winners from other universities on 30 October 2024.

We welcome the Graduate Research School to the event, who will present its inaugural Higher Degree Research Awards to three winners who have excelled in the practice of Open Research. Submissions are open until Thursday 15 August 2024 (11:59pm AEST). Click here for more information.

Join us and show your support in this exciting and entertaining event either at UTS or via Zoom.

Meet the judges who will make the difficult decisions on the night;

Professor Hélène de Burgh-Woodman

Dean, Graduate Research School, UTS

Professor Hélène de Burgh-Woodman is the Dean of the Graduate Research School at University of Technology Sydney. Hélène is committed to the value of University research for the public good and to graduate research as a pathway to cultivating the requisite knowledge capital and innovation for tackling future wicked challenges and ensuring inter-generational social, economic and environmental sustainability. Having worked across European and Australian contexts, and in partnership with a range of disciplines, Hélène has an appreciation of the value of the disciplinary spectrum and the ways in which diverse research domains can realise globally impactful outcomes through collaboration. As a senior research and innovation leader, her experience across different research contexts has refined her belief in the integration of industry, universities and public structures as a catalyst for innovation, social development and responsiveness to emerging challenges.

Professor Jason De Santolo

Associate Dean, Indigenous Research, Office of the PVC, UTS

Professor Jason De Santolo is a Garrwa and Barunggam man and Professor of First Nations Land Justice in Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research and Assoc. Dean (Indigenous Research) in PVC Indigenous Office at UTS. He has worked in higher education for over two decades, combining legal training with creative methodologies to further Indigenous rights and environmental justice. Jason was previously Director of Indigenous Research in UTS School of Business and Assoc. Professor in the UTS School of Design and Director of Indigenous Excellence in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. He co-edited 'Decolonizing Research: Indigenous storywork as methodology' (2019) with Jo-Ann Archibald and Jenny Lee-Morgan (Zed Books). His latest documentary Warburdar Bununu / Water Shield explores water contamination in his homelands and Borroloola, Northern Territory.

Isabelle Schaefer

UTS 3 Minute Thesis 2023 Runner-Up winner, Faculty of Health

Isabelle Schaefer is a Project Officer at the University of Technology Sydney working in palliative care research, with a background in medical science and infectious diseases. She is undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy as part of the National Palliative Care in Prisons project, focusing on a gap analysis of palliative care provision in Long Bay Correctional Complex. Isabelle was our runner-up at the UTS 3 Minute Thesis Finals in 2023 and we are so pleased to welcome her back as a judge!