UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Tricia Hart, who earned a doctoral degree in Nutritional Sciences from Penn State in December 2024, will be representing Penn State in the final round of a regional Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition organized through the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS).
Hart will represent Penn State as she competes against top graduate students from other institutions, presenting her research on the cardiovascular benefits of pecans. The finals will be held on Zoom at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 25. The event is free and open to the public, and advance registration is required.
The 3MT competition challenges graduate students to explain the significance of their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, using only one slide. Originally developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, the competition now takes place at more than 900 universities worldwide.
The regional competition, hosted by NAGS member institution Concordia University, will present several awards, including a People’s Choice award determined by audience votes. The first and second place winners will go on to a national 3MT competition organized by the national Council of Graduate Schools.
Hart, who conducted dissertation research under the mentorship of Kristina Petersen, associate professor of nutritional sciences, explored the cardiovascular health effects of replacing snacks with a two-ounce serving of pecans every day. High levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol, can clog the arteries and increase the risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. Because diet is a main contributor to LDL levels, Hart hypothesized that replacing usual snacks with pecans could reduce LDL. She measured LDL both before and after a 12-week dietary study for which participants received instructions to replace daily snacks with pecans, compared to a control group that had no pecans and ate their usual diet. She found that it reduced LDL by about 6% compared to the usual diet, which would be estimated to reduce heart disease deaths by 28,000 per year.