UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s annual Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT), hosted by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School, is now accepting graduate student competitor and judge registrations.
In its fourth year at Penn State, 3MT allows graduate students to improve their research communication and presentation skills, permitting just three minutes and one static presentation slide to effectively communicate their research and its impact to an audience outside their field. 3MT was originally developed at the University of Queensland, Australia, and is now hosted at more than 900 universities worldwide.
All master’s, doctoral, law and medical students at any Penn State graduate campus are eligible to participate. Participants should have completed enough research to share results and discuss conclusions. Faculty advisors must approve their student’s participation in the competition.
Competition format
Penn State’s 3MT competition consists of two rounds. In the first round, participants are asked to record three-minute research summary presentations on their own, with one presentation to serve as a visual aid. Students should use either Zoom or another platform that can simultaneously record live video and a shared computer screen. First-round submissions are due by Dec. 11.
After the first-round deadline, judges will review student presentations, leaving scores and comments to competitors, from Jan. 4-15, 2027. The top 10-scoring students will advance to the final round of 3MT, taking place on Saturday, Mar. 20, 2027, in the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus. The final round will be livestreamed on the Fox Graduate School YouTube channel, as well.
In the final round, finalists will deliver their 3MT presentations live and in person, competing for the following cash prizes:
- First place: $2,500
- Second place: $1,250
- People’s Choice: $750 (sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Association)
Benefits of participating
Previous 3MT participants have highlighted the competition for the ways it helped them advance academically and even professionally.
“3MT has been really helpful in my job search,” said Adam Smerigan, the second-place winner of the 2024-25 Penn State 3MT competition and recent chemical engineering doctoral degree graduate. “Not only has it helped me discuss my research concisely, it’s also given me an opportunity to demonstrate how I’m improving in skills such as public speaking, which has been really helpful in interviews.”
Academically, previous participants have noted how 3MT can provide a sense of clarity and encouragement in their research.
“3MT helps you step back from your research to consider what, how and why you do what you do, and how to clearly convey that to a diverse community,” said Julia Ho, the first-place winner of the 2025-26 Penn State 3MT competition and doctoral candidate in architectural engineering. “It helped me develop communication skills, as well as better my big-picture thinking and empathy for others, which are deeply important skills for researchers.”