Tiina Lehtiniemi Wins 3MT Competition
Doctoral Candidate Tiina Lehtiniemi from Turku Doctoral Programme of Molecular Medicine has won the 2019 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. She will represent the University of Turku in the international 3MT competition organised by Coimbra Group with her presentation: Quality sperm – how it’s produced and the secrets within!
The judges picked Tiina Lehtiniemi’s presentation as the winner and Pooneh Sotoudehnia came in second as the runner-up. Riikka Haarikkala Laihinen won the People’s Choice award.
The runner-up was Pooneh Sotoudehnia with her presentation From food waste to saving lives. People’s Choice winner was Riikka Harikkala-Laihinen with her presentation The power of positivity.
Three Minute Thesis is an academic competition created by the Australian University of Queensland. The University of Turku is part of the larger European 3MT competition organised by the Coimbra Group.
Three Minute Thesis was organised at the University of Turku for the third time. At the beginning of the final, the Director of the University of Turku Graduate School Pirjo Nuutila (in the photo) talked how last year the University’s representative, doctoral candidate in dentistry Khalil Shahramian won the entire European competition.
– That is our aim this year as well, Nuutila encouraged the finalists.
The topics of the eight finalist represented the wide variety of research conducted at the University of Turku. In addition to the winning presentations, the finalists were Kristin Suorsa with her presentation Retirement - a breaking point for a more sedentary lifestyle?, Kenneth Drummond on A work of art without an artist to make it?, Venkat Subramanian Rathinakannan on Nipping prostate and breast cancer in the bud, Artem Plyusnin on How innovations can save your Chihuahua, and Muhammad Waqar Ashraf on Pharmacometric studies of sedatives and analgesics used in anaesthesia and pain medicine.
Winner Tiina Lehtiniemi said that she was surprised about her win as the level of the competition was high and the finalists came from several different disciplines.
– My field of study is not the most known to people. It was great to represent the research group of Noora Kotaja where we conduct basic research in men’s reproductive health, said Lehtiniemi.
Finalists Encouraged Other Doctoral Candidates to Participate
The panel of judges included Vice Rector Riitta Pyykkö, Director of Turku PET Centre Juhani Knuuti, and Director Mike Nelson from the Centre of Language and Communication Studies.
– The quality of the presentations was good. As judges, we need to consider the balance between the science and performance. We considered how excited we were about the presentation and whether we’d like to learn more about the topic, Nelson described the judges’ evaluation process.
Nelson characterised Lehtiniemi’s presentation as calm, interesting, and innovative, and providing new information, especially for men. More information will be available once Lehtiniemi’s doctoral dissertation on the quality of sperm and the factors affecting it is completed.
Of the competition itself, Lehtiniemi noted that the three-minute time limit is particularly challenging.
– I’m used to giving five- or three-minute presentations, but this was completely different as I couldn't exceed the limit even by a second. It’s really interesting to practice your speech with a timer in your hand, said Lehtiniemi.
Artem Plyusnin and Muhammad Waqar Ashraf encouraged other doctoral candidates to participate next time.
– I had to somewhat force myself to participate but it was really worth it in the end, stated Plyusnin.
Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Photos: Hanna Oksanen
Translation: Mari Ratia