DOCTORAL STUDENT. Josefin Larsson, PhD student at the Institute of clinical sciences, won won the People’s Choice award in the Three Minute Thesis competition, recently held during the International Science Festival in Gothenburg. She also got to share tha award in the category ‘The jury’s favourite’ with Tjeerd Fokkens, PhD student at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science.
The competition requires doctoral students to present the subject of their thesis in maximum three minutes, using only one presentation slide with no other props allowed. The presentation must be held in English.
The competition was held together with Chalmers University of Technology, which contributed to more subject areas being represented. In total, there were four doctoral students from each academy competing in the jury’s favorite and audience award categories.
The competition took place at SkeppetGBG, one of the new arenas for the 2023 Science Festival, and was well attended by a full room with a tense atmosphere.
While the jury summarized the results of the competition, all finalists were invited back on stage to reflect on their experience of being part of the 3MT competition. The finalists’ unanimous response was that 3MT provides a great opportunity to practice pitching their research to a non-specialist audience. They also encouraged peers to participate in future competitions.
Shared award
In the Jury’s Favourite category, the award was shared between Josefin Larsson, PhD student at the Department of Clinical Studies, and Tjeerd Fokkens, PhD student at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, both at the University of Gothenburg.
Josefin Larsson also won the People’s Choice award. Her doctoral topic is about endometriosis and how to treat it through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).
Josefin was relieved and happy after the competition. We let her answer a few questions.
How does it feel to have won both the People’s Choice award and to share the award as the Jury’s Favourite?
– Totally amazing. A confirmation that the work I put in before the competition paid off.
What has been the biggest challenge in presenting your topic in just three minutes?
– To shorten and include what is most relevant has been the biggest challenge.
How was it to present your PhD topic to a general audience? Challenges? Possibility?
– I am passionate about my subject and reaching out with knowledge about endometriosis. It doesn’t matter how many people are listening, if I can just catch someone suffering from this or someone with a relative suffering from it and I can help them, I’m more than happy!
How will you celebrate?
– Go out for dinner with my family!
BY: JONAS MARTINSSON
FOTO: ULRIKA LUNDIN
