Our eighth annual Three Minute Thesis competition will be held on Thursday, February 19th at 6:30 p.m. in the Ball Brothers Hospitality Suite at Emens Auditorium. The event will feature the presentations of our ten finalists, listed in order below, and we’ll announce the three winners.
This competition challenges students to convey the essence and importance of their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation research in an engaging way to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes using one static PowerPoint slide. The winners will receive cash prizes.
2026 Finalists:
-Haifa Hanzala, Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling—Turning Toward the Lemons: Affective Attending and Neural Pathways of Posttraumatic Healing; Advisor: Dr. Kristin Perrone
-Hyungseok Jang, Media—Almost Human, Not Quite: Exploring Human Responses to Physical AI.; Advisor: Dr. Michael Lee
-Alena Miškinis, Kinesiology—Exploring the effects of rest breaks among pianists in the practice room; Advisor: Dr. Jean-Charles Lebeau
-Jewel Johnson, Biology—The "Egg-strodinary" Social Life Of Eggs; Advisor: Dr. Jess Ward
-Abby Shaw, Landscape Architecture—Riverbed Revival: Landscape Architecture Design Strategies for Native Freshwater Mussel Restoration in Muncie, Indiana; Advisor: Dr. Natalie Yates
-Summer Davis, Biology—Identifying potential anti-fungal targets to battle invasive candidiasis; Advisor: Dr. Douglas Bernstein
-Hayden Adams, Communication Studies—Reconceptualizing masculinity in relation to cisness and transness: An ideological criticism of @stazzyfit; Advisor: Dr. Scarlett Hester
-Andy Morrow, Educational Leadership—Recalculating: Driving Without a Map in the "Gray Zone" of Academic Advising; Advisor: Dr. Thalia Mulvihill
-Shanta Paul, Biology—Hunting for "Modern Miracles": The Race to Fight Against Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria; Advisor: Dr. John McKillip
-Eve Kopsolias, Journalism and Strategic Communication—Fostering Happiness in ACE-Affected Youth; Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Pallilonis
If you need accommodations to participate in this event, please contact gradschool@bsu.edu or call 765-285-1301 as soon as possible.
Please join us and support our exceptional graduate student researchers!
Sincerely,
Adam Beach
Dean of the Graduate School