UTS 3MT Three Minute Thesis 2026
Description
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 Final, where you can vote in the People's Choice Award category.
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 $3000 plus entry into the 2026 Virtual Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition
Join us and show your support in this exciting and entertaining event.
This will be a hybrid event, in-person and livestreamed through Zoom.
Meet our 3MT Final judges
Ahmed Da'na
Ahmed Da'na is an industrial designer and PhD candidate in the Faculty of Design and Society at UTS. His research focuses on custom-made Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthoses (KAFOs) for polio survivors, developed in partnership with a Sydney-based orthotic clinic to translate the work into real-world impact. Ahmed won the UTS Three Minute Thesis competition in 2025 for this research and went on to represent UTS at the Asia-Pacific 3MT showcase. He is also a casual academic at UTS with a keen passion for public speaking, and returns to this year's competition as a judge for the finals.
Professor Anika Gauja
Professor Anika Gauja is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at UTS. As a political scientist, she has twenty years’ experience providing expert media commentary on contentious events such as elections and the Eurovision Song Contest. Anika has communicated her research on democracy and political participation to politicians (giving a lecture in the Australian Senate), to pub-goers (participating in Raising the Bar), to parliamentary inquiries and as an expert witness in legal proceedings. Her federal election podcast Below the Line, developed in conjunction with Sydney University, La Trobe and the Conversation, reached #7 nationally in the Apple news podcast charts and attracted more 40,000 listeners.
Dr Naomi Koh Belic
Dr Naomi Koh Belic is a science communicator who broke into the industry through 3MT. She is the creator of the Screen Australia, Screen NSW and AIDC funded health series Bimbo Biology. Dr Naomi is the inaugural ABC Science Journalism Fellow where she is currently developing a health YouTube series. She was previously a presenter on Discovery Channel and ABC.
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