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I am excited and thankful to have been chosen as a Runner-Up in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition at the University of Turku on Wednesday, 5 March 2025. This experience has been thrilling, challenging, and nerve-wracking, but absolutely rewarding. As someone deeply passionate about science communication and making research accessible to the public, this competition was a golden opportunity to share my PhD research on ‘Type 1 diabetes: Solution in the immunity’.

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is designed to celebrate the exciting research conducted by Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students developed by the Queensland University in Australia. It challenges participants to present their research topics in an engaging and concise manner within just three minutes.

The finals of University of Turku’s 3MT featured seven competitors, each presenting their doctoral research and its significance. It was truly inspiring to witness how research across various disciplines at the University of Turku is making a meaningful impact.

This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support system around me. I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to:

• My supervisor, Prof. Riitta Lahesmaa, for her guidance and encouragement.
• My colleagues at Turku Bioscience and InFLAMES whose feedback and support were invaluable.
• My friends, for their unwavering belief in me.
• The university teacher Kelly Raita for bringing the simplicity of science communication to complex doctoral research through coursework.
• The judges, organizing team, and audience, for creating such a fantastic platform for us to showcase our research.

This competition reinforced the power of effective science communication, and I am more motivated than ever to share my research in meaningful ways. I highly encourage doctoral researchers to participate in future 3MT competitions at University of Turku.

Congratulations to Pauliina Moilanen (winner 3MT), Ashwini Jadhav (People’s Favorite winner), Omkar Joshi (UTU representative at SANORD 3MT), and all participants for your truly impressive presentations!

The winners of the competition were Omkar Joshi (left), Pauliina Moilanen, Rahul Biradar and Ashwini Jadhav.

Read more about the competition>>

The writer of this post is Rahul Birdar, Doctoral Researcher from Molecular Systems Immunology research group.