UChicagoGRAD's oral communication programming helps graduate students and postdocs build public speaking skills and increase the impact of their scholarship.
One-on-one appointments allow you to practice public speaking, interviewing, participating in the classroom, and giving conference/poster presentations. Make an appointment.
Workshops
Interactive monthly programs to improve networking skills, master elevator speeches, manage anxiety, make cold calls, and more. Check the GRAD Guide Weekly for workshop dates throughout the year.
Three Minute Thesis
UChicagoGRAD will host the university’s fifth annual 3MT competition on Friday, May 19, 2023. Learn more.
The University of Chicago’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition is on Friday, May 19, 2023 from 12:30–2:00 p.m. at UChicagoGRAD’s headquarters, located on the 3rd floor of the Bookstore Building. A reception with light refreshments will follow.
In a 3MT competition, participants prepare a three-minute presentation about their research using only one static slide. It’s a great opportunity for PhD students to improve their public speaking skills and showcase their work to a broader audience. A judging panel will award $500 to the first-place winner and $300 to the runner-up. 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 without losing sight of the significance and impact of their work. The winning presenters will have their presentations featured on the UChicagoGRAD website. Please see recordings of prior winners below.
Shi En Kim, PhD Program, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering: “Keeping It Cool: Solving Overheating in Electronics with a Bizarre Nanomaterial”
PhD Category, First Runner-Up:
Sangmin Simon Oh, PhD Program, 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”
PREVIOUS 3MT COMPETITION WINNERS
2020
Overall 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”
People’s Choice Awards
PhD Category: Chang Cui, PhD program in Cancer Biology, “Unmute the messenger—targeting macrophages to boost their anti-tumor immunity”
Master’s Category: Siva Bhavani, M.D., Master of Science in Public Health Sciences for Clinical Professionals, “COVID-19 Prognostication Using Body Temperature Trajectory”
2019
Overall 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”
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)”
Second Runner-Up: Shelby James, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, “The Road to Nowhere: Cormac McCarthy’s Alternative to the Progress Narrative”
People’s Choice 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”
