Communicate your research: the 3MT in LMP

The 3MT (or 3-Minute Thesis) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. 

It is you, your research project, one slide and 3 minutes.

You are communicating to a non-scientific audience about why you’re doing your research and what you hope to achieve with it.

You are not judged on your research or the science, you are judged on how you communicate it. You can take part even if you have zero research results yet!

See our resources page for competitors, coaches and judges

The LMP competition

The University of Toronto competition is run every Spring by the Centre for Graduate Professional Development for doctoral and master’s students.

In LMP, we will run our own departmental competition in December – February, open to all LMP students and trainees in any program.

Our aim is to provide a fun and interesting way for any of our learners to learn about communicating their science.

Why you should do it

This should be called ‘why shouldn’t you do it?’! 

It is a great opportunity for you to:

• develop your communication skills
• learn how to communicate your research to a lay audience
• learn more about the other research happening in LMP
• have fun
• be challenged
• if you’re successful, you’ll get great exposure as a researcher!
• You can also win a cash prize of $300 (winner) or $150 (People's Choice).

Find out how to be successful in the 3MT by accessing our resources page.

The LMP 3MT 2024-2025

Five finalists made it to the LMP 3MT finals in February 2025.

Our finalists

• Shiyuan Bian, "A Breath for Hope: Could Ventilation Be the Workout Lungs Need for Regeneration?", PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Golnaz Karoubi at Toronto General Hospital, UHN
• Kamalben Prajapati, "Your blood speaks a better word", MSc student in the lab of Dr. Kathryn Howe at Toronto General Hospital, UHN
• Dr. Pardaman Setia, "Helping Our Heroes A Simple Solution for Veterans in Need", MHSc student in the Translational Research Program
• Melissa Suma, "On the beat: A safety mechanism for heart cell therapies", MSc student in the lab of Dr. Michael Laflamme at Toronto General Hospital, UHN
• Anna Tymofyeyeva, "The Tipping Point: When Gliomas Shift from Slow to Explosive Growth", MSc student in the lab of Dr. Peter Dirks at SickKids

The judges

• Dr. Justin Nodwell, Vice Dean, Research & Health Science Education, Professor, Department of Biochemistry
• Dr. Nicola Jones, Senior Scientist and Staff Physician, Department of Paediatrics, SickKids; Director, Integrated Physician Scientist Training Program at the University of Toronto
• Jim Oldfield, Associate Director, Strategic Communications, Temerty Faculty of Medicine

 Thank you to Dr. Laurent Bozec for hosting!