2016 - All Press Releases

Winners of Caltech Library’s Three Minute Thesis competition, sponsored by Springer Nature, announced

London, 19 April 2016

Caltech Library hosted the live final round of its first Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition, sponsored by Springer Nature, on 15 April 2016. Founded by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT® competition challenges final year PhD students to explain their thesis in an engaging three minute presentation aimed at a non-specialist audience.

From a pool of nine finalists, the winners of Caltech Library’s 3MT® competition were Anton Toutov and Utkarsh Mital.

First place winner Anton Toutov, PhD candidate in Organic Chemistry, presented “Breaking Society’s Dependence on Precious Metals: Green Chemical Manufacturing Using Potassium”.

Utkarsh Mital, PhD candidate in Soil Mechanics, placed second for his talk, “Understanding Fundamentals of Soil Liquefaction”. He also won the People’s Choice award, selected through live polling.

Robert Boissy, Director of Institutional Marketing and Account Development for the Americas, Springer Nature, said: “This competition was an opportunity for Springer Nature to encourage early career researchers in developing their ability to speak to and engage effectively with non-scientists. We are delighted to have supported Caltech Library’s 3MT and congratulate all three winners on their outstanding talks.”

Kristin Antelman, Caltech University Librarian said: “Communicating research to a general audience is now a key skill for researchers at all stages in their careers and we wished to provide a platform for young academics to showcase their abilities in this area. We are thoroughly impressed by the quality of the submissions received which speaks to a vibrant research community here at Caltech. We appreciate Springer Nature’s support of this event.”

For more information about all nine finalists, visit: http://3mt.library.caltech.edu/


ENDS

For more information contact:

Lillienne Zen
Corporate Communications Executive
Springer Nature
T: +44 (0)20 7843 4850
lillienne.zen@nature.com

Deborah Williams-Hedges
Senior Media Relations Manager
Strategic Communications, California Institute of Technology
T: +1 626 395 3227
debwms@caltech.edu

About Springer Nature

Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publishers, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. Springer Nature is the world's largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world's most influential journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.
Visit: www.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.

About Caltech

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a world-renowned science and engineering research and education institution whose highly selective community of scholars includes approximately 1,000 undergraduates, 1,300 graduate students, and 300 faculty members. Caltech faculty and alumni have earned national and international recognition for their work, including 35 Nobel Prizes.

Caltech—an independent, privately supported university in Pasadena—also manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA, and owns and operates large-scale research facilities such as its world-renowned seismological laboratory and a global network of astronomical observatories.