{"id":920,"date":"2018-03-27T08:55:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T07:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/?p=920"},"modified":"2018-03-27T08:55:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T07:55:52","slug":"3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2018\/03\/27\/3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Minute Thesis- What made me enter!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/10\/93ThreeMinThesis170530Matt-Austin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-750 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/10\/93ThreeMinThesis170530Matt-Austin-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><em>Elisabeth is a final year PhD student studying astrophysics. In her research she aims to detect planets orbiting other stars, and understand how these interact with debris dust &#8211; similar to the Asteroid and Kuiper belts in our own solar system. When not worrying about writing a thesis, she enjoys running and playing the flute.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m in the unusual position of having given three minute pitches of my PhD four times: twice with the University&#8217;s <em>Three Minute Thesis<\/em> competition, and twice through a similar <em>Three Minute Wonder<\/em> competition run by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iop.org\/activity\/3-minute-wonder\/page_60438.html\">Institute of Physics<\/a>. I was lucky enough to compete in the Three Minute Wonder final, where we spoke at the Royal Institute in London. Having grown up watching the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rigb.org\/christmas-lectures\">RI Christmas Lectures<\/a> I was pretty star-struck by that experience &#8211; and it&#8217;s not every day that you get to speak on the same stage where Faraday and Dirac have delivered lectures.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Elisabeth Matthews &#039;Through the Looking Glass&#039; - 3 Minute Thesis 2017\" width=\"819\" height=\"461\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TZeYxcI_sfA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>I would definitely recommend this competition to anyone, since it&#8217;s a really unique and exciting way to be able to share your research. For me there have been several clear benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, <strong>it&#8217;s opened doors<\/strong>: I&#8217;m passionate about science communication, and I&#8217;ve been offered science communication opportunities as a direct result of these competitions. In September the IoP invited me to spend a week touring the South West and visiting schools to deliver science talks: I delivered 16 talks, to over 1000 kids, and had a brilliant time in the process. I was also invited to give an academic seminar at Bristol by someone who had seen my 3 minute piece, which is of course useful for forging academic connections.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, <strong>it&#8217;s a huge confidence builder<\/strong>. The competition feels like a very high pressure form of presentation because of the precise time limit (and the huge clock!). The first time I performed a pitch, I literally froze in on stage and my brain went blank. That was pretty horrible experience &#8211; but by repeatedly going through the process I&#8217;ve become much more comfortable presenting my science, which has been hugely beneficial at conferences and when giving seminars. If I <em>had<\/em> to freeze somewhere, I&#8217;d much rather it be at a relatively low-stakes competition like Three Minute Wonder than at a conference where there might be potential employers in the room!<\/p>\n<p>I love my research, and I love talking about all things exoplanets &#8211; and events like this have given me more understanding of what the public do and don&#8217;t know about my field, and <strong>how I can simultaneously make my subject accessible and avoid dumbing it down<\/strong>. I really value that this means I can speak about my work in a more casual setting, and that my friends and family can start to understand what I do with my time. I am also excited by research more generally, and watching the other competitors &#8211; and talking to them afterwards &#8211; was a fascinating overview of some of the diverse research happening across the university &#8211; from microchips to autism.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, <strong>I recently had a postdoc interview where the opening question was &#8220;So how about you just give me a two minute summary of your research so far?&#8221;.<\/strong> Interviews terrify me, and this one was at a very highly ranked university so I was definitely feeling the pressure &#8211; but I think managed to get garble a decent two minutes out, and I&#8217;m sure that my Three Minute Thesis and Three Minute Wonder experiences helped me to do so. And you know what? I got the job.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Written by:<\/strong><\/em> Elisabeth Matthews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elisabeth is a final year PhD student studying astrophysics. In her research she aims to detect planets orbiting other stars, and understand how these interact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,21,27,31,35,37],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Minute Thesis- What made me enter! - Doctoral College<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2018\/03\/27\/3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Minute Thesis- What made me enter! - Doctoral College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elisabeth is a final year PhD student studying astrophysics. In her research she aims to detect planets orbiting other stars, and understand how these interact [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2018\/03\/27\/3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doctoral College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-27T07:55:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/10\/93ThreeMinThesis170530Matt-Austin-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2018\/03\/27\/3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2018\/03\/27\/3-minute-thesis-what-made-me-enter\/\",\"name\":\"3 Minute Thesis- What made me enter! 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