December ‘Bite-size’ Talk on Brain Tumours Wins Threesis 2018

NUI Galway has announced the winners of its Threesis 2018 competition which took place in the O’Donoghue Theatre on campus recently. The fast-paced event featured three-minute talks by twelve NUI Galway researchers who shared the story of their research using just three presentation slides, in front of three judges and a voting audience.

The winner of Threesis 2018 was James Blackwell from Ballyneety, County Limerick with his bite-sized talk ‘Finding brain tumours using ultrasound’.

James is a PhD candidate split between the School of Physics and School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics at NUI Galway. His research involves using ultrasound to create stiffness maps of the brain. These can help surgeons to identify brain tumours and other diseases. His work is supported by the Irish Research Council.

In second place was Katie Gilligan, from Eyrecourt in County Galway, with her talk ‘A novel therapy for breast cancer patients’. Katie is a PhD candidate in the School of Medicine, based in the Lambe Institute for Translational Research. Her research explores a new novel therapy for breast cancer patients. The therapy aims to be more targeted and tolerated leading to a better quality of life for the patient undergoing the treatment. Her work is supported by the Irish Research Council.

Securing third place from the judges as well as being chosen as the Audience Winner, was Siobhán Morrissey with her talk on ‘Enid Blyton: War and Nationalism’.

Siobhán, from Roscrea in County Tipperary, is a second year PhD student in the School of Humanities. Her research focuses on twentieth-century children’s literature, with a particular focus on the works of Enid Blyton. In her research, she studies the colonial, imperial and nationalistic elements of children’s fiction.

Not only was there the challenge of time as part of Threesis, but the participants were tasked with using clear and jargon-free language. The judges in the final were: Lorna Farren, Director of Marketing and Communications, NUI Galway; Dr Sylvia Maretto, Research Support Officer, NUI Galway; and John Crumlish CEO, Galway International Arts Festival. Professor Andrew Shearer from NUI Galway’s School of Physics acted as MC for the evening.

Ruth Hynes of the Research Office at NUI Galway which organised the event said: “We had incredible interest in Threesis this semester. Through a series of training workshops in October, and six heats in November we whittled down the initial 80 people who registered to our 12 amazing finalists. James, Katie and Siobhán did a fantastic job on the night, as did all of the other finalists and the many other researchers who signed up to be part of Threesis 2018 to communicate their research.”

The Threesis competition was initiated at NUI Galway in 2012. It is open to all research students and postdoctoral researchers at NUI Galway. Finalists included undergraduate students, PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers from across all Colleges on campus.

Videos of the three winning presentations are available at: www.nuigalway.ie/threesis

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