Winner of 3 Minute Thesis Competition in Krakow: student Claudia Schmidt
Congratulations to the overall winner Claudia Schmidt from the Lab of Alexander Stein at the MPI-bpc for winning the 3 Minute Thesis Competition – first in Göttingen, and then the deserved 1st place in Krakow at the Jagiellonian University.
The 3 Minute Thesis Competion (3MT) was organized by the Coimbra Group of universities – a network of leading European Universities – for the third time. Each participant has only 3 minutes to present their research in such a way that non-scientists can easily follow and understand what the person is working on. Have you ever tried to explain your research to your parents – you know this is taff – then try it in 3 minutes… From 19 universities out of 39 belonging to Coimbra, 3 of the finalists were selected and send to Krakow for the final show. Schmidt was one of them and made it! She convinced the jury with her talk about recycling in the cell by drawing detailed parallels to cleaning up of her apartment.
Video of the 3MT competition talk by Claudia Schmidt in Göttingen:
http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/605276.html
To the person:
Claudia Schmidt is a biologist by training and and joined the graduate school GAUSS as a GGNB student of the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Molecular Biology. Her research is focused on molecular biology and biochemistry, with a special emphasis on the biochemistry of membrane proteins. Her thesis is entitled “Reconstitution of Doa10p-mediated ER-associated protein degradation with purified components”.
History of the 3MT:
The idea for the Three Minute Thesis competition arose in Australia, when Queensland was facing a drought and everyone was requested to use less water – also when showering. A large part of the people thus used egg timers to shower for no more than 3 minutes. The Dean of the University of Queenslands Graduate School came then up with the idea of the 3 Minute Thesis Competition – et voila, the egg was ready to be served!