Suzanne Lazaroo and Elly Mackay
11 September 2025: Eight of the ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ’s brightest minds battled it out for the top spot in the annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition last night, with the Faculty of Science and Technology’s Mona Hemmati taking top spot with her research on how to address Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which is often life-threatening especially for children.
An academic research communication competition initially developed by the University of Queensland, 3MT sees finalists present on their thesis in just three minutes, to win a share of funding towards their research.
Relieving RSV symptoms in children, addressing long COVID brain fog, and bringing Mathematics to life for school students by way of employing spatial processing techniques, were just some of the PhD thesis topics that were presented to a panel of judges at the finals of the event, held at the Ann Harding Conference Centre.
The winner of the 2024 faculty 3MT heats, Ms Hemmati said she was genuinely surprised to hear her name announced last night as the finals winner.
“The competition was incredibly strong and every finalist was deserving. Communicating complex research in a clear and engaging way is no easy feat – so to win was both humbling and exciting,” Ms Hemmati said.
"Winning the faculty heats last year gave me a taste for public speaking, but this year was different. I faced a lot of personal challenges and wasn’t sure I’d compete again. Ultimately, I decided to give it another crack and prove to myself that I could step onto that stage with confidence again.
“I feel proud, and grateful to ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ for the opportunity, and to my supervisors Dr Shadi Shahriari and Professor Reena Ghildyal, mentors, peers and family for their unwavering support. They have helped shape me into the young researcher I am today."
Ms Hemmati received $4,000 to go towards her research, and will go on to take part in the Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition.
"I’m really looking forward to representing ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ at the Asia-Pacific round. ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ has been my academic home and has played a huge role in my development since my undergraduate days, through honours and now into my PhD," she said. "I’m looking forward to viewing the other contestants' video submissions and hearing about their incredible research. It’s another great opportunity to learn and be inspired."
In her presentation, Ms Hemmati invoked the community focus underlying the science, and outlined investigations into protein interactions between the virus and the human body – her research is looking to ultimately identify the best way in which to disrupt these.
"I’m still deciding [what the prize money will be used for], but I’m considering putting it towards a publication and taking my research beyond 3MT to an international conference or similar event. Although my PhD work is a small piece of the puzzle, it’s a crucial link to the broader work my group is doing, which sits within the translational space. I’d love to contribute more meaningfully to that bigger picture by sharing my winnings," Ms Hemmati said.
Michaela McGrath from the Faculty of Health drew on her own experiences with long COVID to inspire her research into the lasting and disruptive impacts the condition has on the nervous systems of athletes. She was named runner up, and received $2,000 to go towards her research.
The Faculty of Education’s Kamirsyah Wahyu won the audience’s hearts – and votes – with his enthusiastic exposition on using spatial processing techniques to make fractions come alive for school students. He walked away with the People’s Choice Award, and $1,000 for his research.
ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michelle Lincoln, said the international competition is an opportunity for PhD students to promote their research and practice, presenting it in a simplified, easy-to-understand manner.
“This competition – which has been much-loved for many years here at ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ – is an opportunity for candidates to find an engaging angle to their research and present it to a general audience, as well as academics,” Professor Lincoln said.
“It’s a considerable challenge to incorporate all the aspects into such a short presentation, but our PhD students continue to step up to the plate.”
The judging panel – Professor Wayne Spratford, Dean of the University’s Graduate Research School, Lauren Cannell, a passionate advocate, humanitarian, and changemaker and Tom Navakas, Programs Manager at The Mill House Ventures – had their work cut out for them, with each presenter taking the stage with passion, conviction and research-backed evidence.
The Faculty of Arts and Design’s Kate Clark spoke about the importance of cultural heritage, and integrating it into wider public policy, including for health and wellbeing, climate change, social justice or sustainability.
Lina Mohammed Abdo Al-Aghbari from the Faculty of Business, Government and Law is investigating the role of economic constraints in holding women back from realising their potential.
“Identifying the constraints is the first step to empowering women – to informing policies that drive development and help women live better lives,” she said.
“A woman will be able to uplift not only herself, but her family and whole community. My research is not just about economic empowerment – it is about economic justice.”
Anton Fichtenmaier from the Faculty of Health is investigating – and challenging – the use of alcohol to help people feel less socially anxious, with the view to clarify conflicting findings and identifying modifiable behaviours that can change how social anxiety disorder is treated.
The Faculty of Science and Technology’s Stephanie Deering is looking into fascinating crow behaviour that has allowed the birds to make a meal of deadly cane toads – by flipping the toads on their backs and eating from the mouth and stomach areas, avoiding the poison glands entirely.
“I’m interested in exploring all aspects, from that first curious peck, to the population level impacts of this behaviour,” she said.
“We have found that this behaviour is widespread in areas heavily-populated by the cane toads, and that the behaviour is targeted. And while we do see crow mortalities in the first instance [in areas newly-populated by cane toads], the crow population numbers bounce back within a year, showing that this is quickly learned behaviour,”
And Jessica Seymour from the Faculty of Health outlined her research into a simple physical activity intervention that could rewrite the story for adults living with heart disease – “helping to overcome the evidence-practice gap and implement a simple intervention in current clinical care,” she said, to prevent repeat heart attacks and early death.
As a member of the judging panel, Professor Spratford expressed his appreciation of how challenging research communication can be – and how valuable.
“Communicating research effectively is such an important skill to have, and as always, the quality of the presentations tonight was very good, the presenters did a fantastic job and it was a very close competition tonight,” he said.