A doctoral student at Waterloo Engineering is moving on to the national finals after finishing fifth at the recent Three Minute Thesis (3MT) championships for Ontario.
Gregory Lui, who is doing a PhD in chemical engineering, competed at York University in Toronto in a field of 20 graduate students representing universities across the province.
Gregory Lui (left) of Waterloo Engineering poses with the top finishers at the recent provincial 3MT finals, including winner Matthew Berry (right).
Lui earned a ticket to the provincial finals by winning the University of Waterloo event with a three-minute explanation of his research on using photocatalysts to convert pollutants in wastewater into electricity.
He was the first Waterloo Engineering student to win the competition in the six years it has been staged at the University.
Now a world-wide event after beginning in Australia in 2008, 3MT challenges master’s and doctoral students to summarize their research and its significance for non-experts in just 90 seconds and using only one static slide.
The winner of the Ontario competition was psychology student Matthew Berry of McMaster University in Hamilton for a presentation on his PhD research on scientifically quantifying the craft of acting.
Hosted by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, the online national 3MT event will be held this spring.