Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) celebrates the exciting research conducted by PhD students. Developed by The University of Queensland, the exercise cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

The first 3MT was held in 2008 with 160 students competing. In 2009 and 2010, the 3MT competition was promoted to other Australian and New Zealand universities and enthusiasm for the concept grew. Due to its adoption in numerous universities, a multi-national event was developed, and the Inaugural Trans-Tasman 3MT competition was held at the University of Queensland in 2010. Since then, the popularity of the competition has increased dramatically and 3MT competitions are now held at over 900 universities in 85 countries.

The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies organized the inaugural Three Minute Thesis competition at Tulane in 2015. We award a Grand Prize to a winner selected by the judges and a People’s Choice Award to the audience favorite. Grand Prize winners have gone on to represent Tulane at the regional Three Minute Thesis competition held each spring at the annual meeting of the Council of Southern Graduate Schools.