Physics student triumphs in Three Minute Thesis Competition

Physics and Astronomy student Paul Gow has won the University of Southampton’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT™) Competition.

Using just one PowerPoint slide and no additional props or electronic media, postgraduate researcher Paul had just three minutes to present his research into 'Emitters for Terahertz'. Paul’s research is in developing emitters that produce Terahertz light, which is light between the frequencies of infra-red and microwaves, and is useful in applications ranging from security and medicine to research and development. Paul will now go on to represent the University at the national 3MT semi-finals in York on 14 July, where six candidates will be chosen to compete in the UK final to be held at the Vitae conference in September 2014.

Paul says: “Everyone's talks were fantastic and it's a great chance to see the kind of thing other faculties are researching. I’m really happy to have won and now I'm looking forward to representing the University in the final.” The 3MT™ is a skills development activity, which challenges postgraduate researchers to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.

About 150 of our Postgraduate researchers have been competing in a series of local heats during February and March. The competition culminated in the University Grand Final last night (14 May) when eight finalists representing each of our eight faculties went head to head.

The other finalists competing alongside Paul were - Fei Fang, Business Law and Art 'Joint Pricing and Inventory Control for Perishable Products'

Hannah Shutt, Engineering and the Environment 'Auditory fitness for duty. Why do the armed forces need a new hearing test?'

Rokhsaneh Tehrany, Health Sciences 'Monitoring changes in lung health using speech breathing pattern analysis'

Sumei Karen Anne Tan, Humanities 'The Comfort of Horror and the Ambiguities of Youth'

Matt Loxham, Medicine 'How safe is the air in the underground?'

James Frith, Natural and Environmental Sciences 'Supercharging Lithium Batteries: The challenges of lithium-oxygen cells'

Craig Allison, Social and Human Sciences 'Removing the Gender Gap in Spatial Orientation'

Hannah Shutt was the runner-up and Paul also won the ‘People’s Choice award’, as voted for by the audience as their favourite presenter. The competition was jointly run by the University’s Researcher Development and Graduate Centre and Career Destinations, with additional support from PublicPolicy@Southampton