Research 2025 Penn 3 Minute Thesis Finalists & Winners
This year eight University of Pennsylvania graduate students competed in our fifth Penn 3-Minute Thesis competition. Our judges had their work cut out for them determining the first and second place winner. Our audience members voted for their favorite talk as well.
Each student had three minutes and a single, static slide to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance. 3MT is not an exercise in trivialising or ‘dumbing-down’ research, but challenges students to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries so they can be presented concisely to a non-specialist audience. This seemingly simple act is actually very powerful at this moment--building trust between experts and the communities their research impacts. Instead of our academic pursuits sitting in the ivory tower or buried in a journal article, the ideas and the accomplishments of our up-and-coming scholars are presented here for everyone to understand and get excited about!
Meet the Finalists!
First Place, $1000, Jaydee Edwards
Jaydee Edwards is a 5th year PhD student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science. She's an environmental geochemist and her research focuses on a sub-category of microplastics, known as tire- and road-wear particles. These particles are often found in road dust, so to collect her samples, you may find her out and about in Philly with a broom and dustpan or even a vacuum in hand. When she isn't looking at the road, she may be out for a run, hanging out with her cats and roommates, or more often, taking a nap.
Second Place, $500, Peter Satterthwaite
Peter is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ancient History program Penn. He first fell in love with archaeology while excavating Roman ruins in Germany, and has since worked on digs in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. As a historian and an archaeologist, he is equally at home in the library, in the lab, and in the trenches. In his free time, Peter enjoys photography, especially restoring vintage film cameras.
Audience Choice, $500, Vivian Lin
Vivian is a fifth year PhD student in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she also completed her Bachelors at the University of Virginia (Go Hoos!). In her free time, Vivian likes to pick up hobbies, get overly invested in them for six months, and then never touch them for two years, after which the cycle repeats. These hobbies include crocheting, junk journaling, running, and boxing.
Priyanka Chatterjee
Priyanka is conducting her PhD in Microbiology and loves to learn about how microbes talk to each other. She has held many leadership positions here at Penn, including serving as Chair of the Biomedical Graduate Students Association. She has also helped launch a new podcast called ArchaeaCast, which aims to share the knowledge about microbes that live in extreme environments. In her free time, you can see Priyanka practicing her new hobby, ice skating!
Mehrnaz Zakershahrak
Mehrnaz is a passionate dentist and post-graduate researcher pursuing a Doctor of Science in Dentistry (DScD) at Penn Dental Medicine. She also serves as the Deputy Director of Academic Programming at Penn’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) and is a Board Member of the International Student Advisory Board, advocating for student engagement and global collaboration. Outside the lab and classroom, she finds joy in baking, playing chess, swimming, and maintaining a balanced life through these personal passions.
Tyler Blanch
Tyler is a 2nd year PhD student in the Bioengineering Department working within the Heo Lab. He earned two bachelor's degrees in Biochemistry and Applied Mathematics at the University of New Mexico before coming to Penn, where he now studies tendon cell biology and disease. In his free time, he likes to stay active and participate in intermural sports at Penn.
Mark Bray
Mark is a third-year graduate student in the Biochemistry & Biophysics department at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is focused on discovering novel inhibitors of the Ebola virus protein, VP35, using AI-based tools. When he's not in the lab, Mark enjoys playing soccer, exploring Philadelphia, and running. He recently ran his first half-marathon: the Philadelphia Love Run. He is not sure whether he'll sign up for another one ever again.
Bryan Li
Brian is a PhD Candidate in Computer and Information Science. His research studies the multilingual capabilities of large language models, investigating both what knowledge they encode, and how they can be used to understand our society. During his PhD, his research conferences and internships have taken him from coast-to-coast, to Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and Rwanda. Aside from computer science, his interests include live music, coffee, marine mammal biology, biking, and running -- shout outs to the Schuylkill River Trail!
Meet the Judges!
Dr. Sunny Shin is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Shin received her B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her Ph.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, and her postdoctoral training from Yale University School of Medicine. Her research is focused on understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms of innate immune defense against bacterial pathogens and in turn, how pathogens evade host immunity to cause disease. Dr. Shin has received several honors, including the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases Award and being elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She is highly committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia and science, and she has received the Penn Medicine Michael P. Nusbaum Graduate Student Mentoring Award. Dr. Shin is also Chair of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Group’s Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology Graduate Program, directs and teaches in several graduate and medical courses, and mentors postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Dr. Shin also performs service for the scientific community, including serving as Chair of the NIH Bacterial:Host Interactions study section, Editor for the ASM journal Infection and Immunity, Division E: Immunology councilor for ASM, and Abstract Programming Chair for AAI.
Dr. Nicholas Joseph is a Lecturer in the Critical Writing Program at Penn, where he has taught writing seminars on topics such as "how to do nothing" and the anthropology of chess. He received his PhD in English from the University of California, Irvine, where he wrote his dissertation on the way that, not unlike pop stars or politicians, many canonical American poets tend to serially "reinvent themselves" over the course of their careers. In addition to his research on the history of American poetry, he has written articles about everything from the poetics of literary postscripts to the sexual politics of professional basketball. When he's not reading, writing, or thinking about reading and writing, he enjoys going to movies at the Philadelphia Film Society and complaining about the Seventy-Sixers.
Dr. Meredith Wooten is the Executive Director of the Graduate Student Center at Penn. As Executive Director, Meredith (she/her) oversees the strategic direction and management of the Center, advises graduate student organizations, and provides the University administration and partners with advice and advocacy related to the graduate and professional student population, among many other things. Meredith earned her doctorate in Political Science at Penn and served as a Grad Center fellow throughout most of her graduate academic career. After graduating, Meredith held a faculty appointment at Haverford College. She then joined the Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University, first serving as Assistant Director and then Director of the Fellowships Office, after which she became Founding Director of the Center for Scholar Development. Meredith is a proud first-generation college graduate and is deeply committed to advancing community for graduate students within academia, particularly as they relate to graduate mentoring and training. Outside of work she enjoys painting, yoga, going to baseball games, and traveling to see friends, family, and nature near and far.
About the 3-Minute Thesis
The first 3MT competition was held at the University of Queensland in 2008. In 2009 and 2010 the 3MT competition was promoted to other Australian and New Zealand universities and enthusiasm for the concept grew. Since 2011, the popularity of the competition has increased and 3MT competitions are now held in over 900 universities across more than 80 countries worldwide. In the US this has led to regional and national competitions that Penn has participated in since 2019. Penn’s version of the competition has seen various forms throughout the years. It began as Pitch Your PhD and was hosted by Career Services and the Grad Center. Eventually, we adopted the 3MT format in 2019. This competition was completely virtual in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic and you can view those videos on our website! Throughout all of these iterations though we have had the support of the Office of the Vice Provost for Education, Career Services, and GAPSA to make sure that our competition remains impactful. You can learn more about the Penn 3MT on our website!
