The annual Faculty of Science Three Minute Thesis heat returned this week. More than twenty graduate students from all six units gathered to compete and describe their research in less than three minutes, using only one slide.
The Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Rob Hill, kicked off the competition and hosted the event.
“I wish all faculty and students could attend to see what magnificent work our students do,” said Hill. “Hearing these presentations makes me proud to be part of the Faculty of Science at this University”.
Seven out of the 21 master’s and doctoral students who competed were from the School of Pharmacy. Nyasha Gondora, a doctoral student supervised by Professors Michael Beazely and John Mielke, presented on the impact of early life stress on receptor expression in the brain. Her obvious passion and clear description are what lead her to winning first-place and $150 in the 2017 competition.
“Moving into finals, I am optimistic and thrilled to get the chance to share my research with a broader audience”, said Gondora.
Her goal for the three minutes was to highlight the affects of early life stress and the role it plays as a determinant of mental health in adulthood. She continues to develop her research and work toward characterizing how stress affects key pathways in the brain. She will be moving on to represent Science at the University competition on March 23rd.
Alexandra Durocher, Bogdan Diaconu and Heather Dekker, all master’s students supervised by Professor Jonathan Blay, presented on varying treatments for colorectal cancer. By educating the audience that this is one of the most common cancers of today, it was remarkable to see their efforts and different treatment solutions making promising progress.
Daniella Calderon, a master’s student supervised by Professor Marianna Foldvari, is developing an alternative to antibiotics to prevent e. coli in broiler chicks through inhalable vaccine.
Jonathan Sutley, a master’s student supervised by Professor Praveen Nekkar, informed the audience that Alzheimer’s is one of the quickest growing diseases in today’s society and no current medications are reliable. He is working to develop a compound to treat biochemical pathways linked with the onset of the disease.
Paul Malik, a master’s student supervised by Professor Andrea Edginton, had major impact on the audience as anything involving children would. Rather than testing drug effects directly on adolescents, he is simulating drug processes through mathematical models to discover effects before they are administered.
It was a challenging heat this year as all the students gave exceptional presentations. With Nyasha Gondora as winner and Emmanuel Alabi, a doctoral student from the School of Optometry and Vision Science as runner-up, the Faculty of Science is enthusiastic for University finals.
The judging panel consisted of Professors Heidi Engelhardt, Marianna Foldvari, John Johnston, Barb Katzenback, Kevin Resch and Chris Yakymchuk as well as Outreach Manager Heather Neufeld. The panel assessed the students on their communication style, comprehension and engagement.
The University of Waterloo will be hosting both the University and Provincial finals. Last year, Science’s Gah-Jone Won, a doctoral student from the School of Optometry and Vision Science, won the national competition.
Let’s continue the winning streak and cheer on your Science candidates Nyasha and Emmanuel at the University competition on March 23rd.