UChicagoGRAD's oral communication programming helps graduate students and postdocs build public speaking skills and increase the impact of their scholarship.
Research Speaks provides opportunities for UChicago graduate students and postdocs to share their findings with the university community and wider public. Participants refine their communication skills and gain experience in articulating complex problems and arguments through brief, accessible talks. By communicating their work beyond their intellectual communities, participants make a lasting impact on the world around us.
Research Speaks at the Field Museum
UChicagoGRAD hosted an afternoon of gallery talks and exploration at the first-ever Research Speaks event at the Field Museum of Chicago on Friday, April 5, 2024. Learn more.
Three Minute Thesis
UChicagoGRAD hosted the university’s seventh annual 3MT competition on Friday, May 17, 2024. Learn more.
Photo by Rob Hart
The University of Chicago’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition took place on Friday, May 17, 2024.
In a 3MT competition, PhD student participants prepare a three-minute presentation about their research using only one static slide. By synthesizing their work into three-minute presentations, participants learn to showcase their work to a broader audience and improve their public speaking skills. A judging panel will award $1,000 to the first-place winner, $500 to the runner-up, and $200 for the third-place winner. The audience will choose one presenter for a $150 audience award. Any PhD student currently working on a research-based project may participate. The focus of their presentation should be their original research, pitched in an engaging way to a general audience that underlines the significance and impact of their work.
For questions, contact Nathan Hardy at njhardy@uchicago.edu.
Photo by Jason Smith
PREVIOUS 3MT COMPETITION WINNERS
2024
Winner: Laura Hunter, PhD program in Integrative Biology: “Pinkies Up! Human Evolution and the Big Impact of the Littlest Finger”
First Runner-Up: Gabriel Torreta, PhD program in History of Christianity: “’Beautiful as the Moon’: Discourses of Beauty in the Carolingian Era”
Second Runner-Up: Mia Paletta, PhD program in Computational Neuroscience: “Inside the Mind of Dreaming Birds”
Audience Award (tied): David Delbar, PhD program in Classics and Comparative Literature: “Was There Gay Sex in Homer’s Iliad?”
Audience Award (tied): Ava Polzin, PhD program in Astronomy and Astrophysics: “The Smallest Pieces of the Puzzle: Using Dwarf Galaxies to Understand the Universe”
2023
Winner: Adarsh Suresh, PhD program in Molecular Engineering: “Lighter and Stronger?”
First Runner-Up: Nick Bayhi, PhD program in Biophysical Sciences: “Engineering the Insulin Degrading EnzymeEngineering the Insulin Degrading Enzymeto Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease”
Second Runner-Up: Jelena Momirov, PhD program in Chemistry: “Development of Targeted Therapies for Development of Targeted Therapies for Cancer Treatment”
Audience Award: Adina Feinstein, PhD program in Astronomy and Astrophysics: “Uncovering How Planets Formed”
2022
Winner: Ella Karev, PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: “Slavery in Egypt”
First Runner-Up: Benjamin Wang, PhD in Neurobiology: “Mouse Models for Epilepsy Research”
Second Runner-Up: Elizabeth Kelley, PhD in Chemistry: “Prying Open the Black Box of Graduate STEM Education”
2021
Winner: Shi En Kim, PhD Program in Molecular Engineering: “Keeping It Cool: Solving Overheating in Electronics with a Bizarre Nanomaterial”
PhD Category, First Runner-Up: Sangmin Simon Oh, PhD Program in Financial Economics: “Social Inflation”
Master’s Category, First Runner-Up: Spring Park, Master’s Program, Committee on International Relations: “Enemy or Not, That Is the Question”
2020
Winner: Siva Bhavani, M.D., Master of Science in Public Health Sciences for Clinical Professionals, “COVID-19 Prognostication Using Body Temperature Trajectory”
PhD Category, First Runner-Up: Lun Li, PhD program in Economics, “Firm Heterogeneity and Advertising”
PhD Category, Second Runner-Up: Chang Cui, PhD program in Cancer Biology, “Unmute the messenger—targeting macrophages to boost their anti-tumor immunity”
Master’s Category, First Runner-Up: Erin Shirtz, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, “Gender, Work-Life Balance, and Career Advancement in Management Consulting”
Master’s Category, Second Runner-Up: Abi Leveille, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, “Let’s Roll: An Ethnography of Performed Dungeons and Dragons”
PhD Category, Audience Award: Chang Cui, PhD program in Cancer Biology, “Unmute the messenger—targeting macrophages to boost their anti-tumor immunity”
Master’s Category, Audience Award: Siva Bhavani, MD, Master of Science in Public Health Sciences for Clinical Professionals, “COVID-19 Prognostication Using Body Temperature Trajectory”
2019
Winner: Andrés Moya-Rodríguez, PhD program in Biophysical Sciences, “Why Does it Clot? Recreating Patients’ Veins in the Lab”
PhD Category, First Runner-Up: Eszter Ronai, PhD program in Linguistics, “Exploring the Complexity of Languages”
PhD Category, Second Runner-Up: Ittai Eres, PhD program in Human Genetics, “What actually separates me from a chimpanzee?”
Master’s Category, First Runner-Up: Adina D. Feinstein, Master of Science Program in the Physical Sciences, “eleanor: A software package to find new planets across the sky with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)”
Master’s Category, Second Runner-Up: Shelby James, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, “The Road to Nowhere: Cormac McCarthy’s Alternative to the Progress Narrative”
Audience Award: Katie Rhodes, PhD program in Human Genetics, “Sommelier of Cell Types”
2018
Overall Winner: Victor Gay, PhD program in Economics: “The Legacy of the Missing Men: Female Labor and World War I in France Over a Century”
PhD Category, First Runner-Up: Saurja DasGupta, PhD program in Chemistry: “In the beginning was’… RNA”
Second Runner-Up: Karlyn J. Gorski, PhD program in Sociology: “My Voice Matters”
Master’s Category, First Runner-Up: Elise Putnam, MFA program, Department of Visual Arts: “Our Great White: Intersections of Race and Gender in Visual Art”
Second Runner-Up: Wee Yang Soh, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences: “Memes as Digital Protest in Singapore”
Research Speaks at the Field Museum 2024 featured 12 doctoral students sharing their research and incorporating an object from one of the exhibits in short gallery talks. UChicagoGRAD lead tours through exhibits ranging from “The Machine Inside: Biomechanics” and “Ancient Egypt” to “Evolving Planet,” “The Hall of China,” and more.” Learn more.
2024 Research Speaks at the Field Museum Presenters
Yin Cai, PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations: “Weaving Nature into Fabrics (of Power)”
Natalie Cortez-Klossner, PhD in Comparative Literature: “Representations of Animal Milk and Meat”
Siobhan Finnerty, PhD in Political Science: “Community Development through Cocoa”
Colleen Foley, PhD in Immunoengineering: “Engineering the Immune System to Treat Cancer”
Laura Hunter, PhD in Integrative Biology: “How Hands Made Us Human”
Elizabeth Janey, PhD in Psychology: “Who and Where You Are: Relating Nature and Identity”
Maddie Kelly, PhD in Integrative Biology: “Ancient Human Environments”
Caitlin Kropp, PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: “Making a Book of the Dead”
Sam Marsden, PhD in Molecular Engineering: “Closing the Loop with Chemical Recycling”
Mia Paletta, PhD in Computational Neuroscience: “The Neuroscience of Birdsong: How Motor Neurons Power Nature’s Virtuoso”
Annika Sharma, PhD in Neurobiology: “Cellular Evolution of Motor Systems in Insects”
Adarsh Suresh, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering: “From Titanosaurs to Aerogels: The Evolution of Light and Strong Materials
PREVIOUS EVENTS
Past partners include The Art Institute of Chicago and the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. Please see a select list of events below.
