Campus News

UK GradResearch Live! Winners Announced

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.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.