Inaugural 3-Minute Thesis Competition

For the first time, the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota is participating in the world-wide 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. This competition, established by the University of Queensland in 2008, challenges research students to communicate the significance of their projects to a general audience in just three minutes, with the aid of a single, static slide.

On September 23, 2019, two psychology graduate students, Chloe Huelsnitz and Caitlin Sisk, presented their doctoral thesis research. Patricia Frazier, PhD, Director of Graduate Studies and Rachel Goller, Associate Director of Graduate Studies, initiated our involvement in this competition and introduced the event.

Sisk is advised by Yuhong Jiang, PhD n the Cognitive and Brain Science program. Her 3MT was titled "Managing Misdirections: Learning to look in all Right Places."  Huelsnitz, who is advised by Jeff Simpson, PhD and Alex Rothman, PhD in the Social Psychology program presented on "The Effects of Social Control on Eating and Relational Behaviors in Romantic Relationships."

Following the event, Frazier said, “We had a fantastic turnout and look forward to expanding the event next year, perhaps including our own internal competition for pre-thesis research.”

Based on the "peoples' vote" Sisk will proceed to the CLA 3-Minute Thesis on October 10, 2019. The student who wins CLA’s competition will move on to the U-wide final in November.