Mikaela Ribi, Graduate Student in Chemistry selected as a Finalist for Stanford’s first Three Minute Thesis Competition

Mikaela Ribi, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry (Bertozzi Lab/Angelo Lab), has been selected as one of ten finalists for Stanford’s first Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT), where they will have three minutes to engage the audience - and a panel of judges - with their research projects at the April 17th event emceed by President Jonathan Levin.

The event, which supports the development of graduate-led research and students’ capacity to explain their research to a lay audience, will be held on April 17 at Hauck Auditorium from 4 to 6 p.m. Stanford President Jonathan Levin will serve as emcee, and it will be Vice Provost for Graduate Education Ken Goodson’s first public event since his appointment earlier this month.

The finalists represent four of Stanford’s seven schools and were selected from a pool of applicants from across the university. They were selected based on self-submitted videos in which applicants presented their research verbally without the help of props, presentation slides, or supporting visuals.

Registration to attend is now open.

Panel of Judges

Condoleezza Rice, the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution; Martin Shell, Stanford vice president and chief external relations officer; Michele Rasmussen, vice provost for student affairs; David Studdert, vice provost and dean of research; and W.E. Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and 2014 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, will serve as judges at the event. The event is open to the Stanford community, and audience members will have a chance to vote for the People’s Choice Award.

The first place winner will receive $5,000; second place will receive $3,000; third place will receive $1,000; and people’s choice will receive $500.

Meet the finalists

Kristen Abels Chemical Engineering | Membranes for Critical Mineral Recovery: Filtering Out the Needle in a Haystack

Gabe Amador Developmental Biology | Must Be This Tall to Ride: Plant Stem Cells Act According to Their Size

Catharine Bowman Epidemiology and Population Health | Lymphedema: Cancer Care Complication or the Sinister Side of Survivorship?

Lydia Burleson English | 2 Sides of American Utopia

Sarah Jobalia Computer Science | HairFlow

Jodie Lunger Genetics | Engineering Our Own Cells to Fight Cancer

Tamri Matiashvili Economics | Talent, Trust, and Health: The Effects of the First Female Physicians

Favour Nerrise Electrical Engineering | Quick Reflexes & Lost Memories: Teaching AI to Spot Brain Disease

Mikaela Ribi Chemistry and Pathology | Cancer’s Sweet Escape

Aly Singleton Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) | Highways and Hidden Epidemics: The Unseen Cost of Development

Adapted by an article originally published in the Stanford Report.