Springer Nature sponsors Caltech Library’s first Three Minute Thesis competition
London, 18 March 2016
Springer Nature is proud to sponsor Caltech Library’s first Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition on 15 April 2016. The contest challenges final year PhD students to condense and explain their research in a three-minute talk to a non-specialist audience.
Founded in 2008 by the University of Queensland, the 3MT® competition develops PhD student researchers’ ability to communicate their research to a general audience in broadly accessible language. It has spread internationally with competitions now being held in over 170 universities across more than 18 countries worldwide.
Commenting on the sponsorship, Robert Boissy, Director of Institutional Marketing and Account Development for the Americas, Springer Nature, said: “Successfully explaining research and discovery in a clear, engaging manner to a non-specialist audience is an absolutely essential skill for researchers today, whether when speaking to funders, policymakers or the media. We are pleased to have this opportunity to help foster young researchers’ abilities in this area, which we hope will have a very positive impact on their future careers.”
Kristin Antelman, Caltech University Librarian said: “We are delighted to host this Three Minute Thesis competition for the first time this year. Condensing years of research into a three-minute talk is no easy task but making complex science accessible to all is important for both the future of science and society.”
The following awards will be made to the winners of the competition:
- 1st place - $5,000
- 2nd place - $3,000
- People’s Choice - $1,000
Fifteen finalists will be selected from the pool of video submissions to present their talks live at the finals on 15 April 2016.
Submissions open today through 25 March 2016. For more information on the 3MT® competition at Caltech Library, visit: http://3mt.library.caltech.edu/
To join in the conversation as the action unfolds, follow the competition live on Twitter with #3MTCaltech.
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
Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, 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 and has a turnover of approximately €1.5 billion. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. Find out more: www.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.
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.
