UK GradResearch Live! Winners Announced

By Morris Grubbs

LEXINGTON. Ky. (Nov. 19, 2020) — The University of Kentucky's GradResearch Live! is proving that excitement for research has no bounds. This year, because of the restrictions of COVID-19, the 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition moved online. In the span of just a couple of weeks, the 24 research presentations by graduate students and postdocs garnered more than 9,500 total views on YouTube.

The competition challenges presenters to tell their research story in three minutes or less using one static slide to an imagined audience of non-specialists. This is the eighth year the UK Graduate School has offered the competition, which has until now been held in person.

The event is co-sponsored by the Graduate Student Congress, which provides the funding for the awards.

Judges included Brigitte Blom Ramsey, president and CEO of the Pritchard Committee for Academic Excellence, and Anna Bedsole, 2018 3MT winner and UK alumna. The People’s Choice winners were determined by the number of likes on YouTube.

This year’s winners are below. Click here to watch a compilation video of the winning presentations.

3MT Track (late-stage research)

First Place: Jonghee Lee-Caldararo, Ph.D. program in geography, College of Arts and Sciences;

Second Place: Kristen Witt, Ph.D. program in education sciences/STEM, College of Education;

Third Place: Kanthi Nuti, Ph.D. program in chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences; and

People’s Choice: Kristen Witt, Ph.D. program in education sciences/STEM, College of Education.

Pre-3MT Track (early-stage research)

First Place: Sara Green, Ph.D. program in education sciences/leadership, College of Education;

Second Place: Carrie Bohmer, master’s program in educational and counseling psychology, College of Education;

Third Place: Christina S. Walker, Ph.D. program in communication, College of Communication and Information; and

People’s Choice: Fahmida Rahman, Ph.D. program in civil engineering, College of Engineering.

Postdoc Track

First Place: Steven McBride, plant and soil science, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment;

Second Place: Al Fadhl Al Khaled, biosystems and agricultural engineering, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; and

People’s Choice: Al Fadhl Al Khaled, biosystems and agricultural engineering, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

The Graduate School and the Graduate Student Congress will hold GradTeach Live! in the spring, featuring graduate teaching assistants describing, in three minutes or less, a component of their teaching philosophy and how they activate it in the classroom or lab. Watch for information coming in early spring here.

The University of Kentucky is increasingly the first choice for students, faculty and staff to pursue their passions and their professional goals. In the last two years, Forbes has named UK among the best employers for diversity, and INSIGHT into Diversity recognized us as a Diversity Champion three years running. UK is ranked among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ* inclusion and safety. UK has been judged a “Great College to Work for" three years in a row, and UK is among only 22 universities in the country on Forbes' list of "America's Best Employers." We are ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures — a tangible symbol of our breadth and depth as a university focused on discovery that changes lives and communities. And our patients know and appreciate the fact that UK HealthCare has been named the state’s top hospital for four straight years. Accolades and honors are great. But they are more important for what they represent: the idea that creating a community of belonging and commitment to excellence is how we honor our mission to be not simply the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky.