On April 20, 2023, at Chapman Hall, the Clark Honors College held its inaugural Three-Minute Thesis competition. CHC thesis students had three minutes to verbally present the idea behind their thesis and research, including the use of one slide. The panel of judges consisted of people from a range of different backgrounds and expertise.

Known as 3MT, the idea came out of the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2008. Since then, the competition has been adopted by institutions in 85 countries—including the University of Oregon’s Graduate School.

Twelve students were selected as finalists. Senior Tamir Eisenbach-Budner won the inaugural Clark Honors College Three Minute Thesis competition and $500 for his presentation on criminal justice reform and clemency issues in Oregon. Amanda Kurtz captured second place and $250 for her presentation on tissue engineering. Carmen Resnick won third place and $125 for mapping sequence functioning of antibiotic resistance. The People’s Choice award of $75 went to Sophia Somerscales, whose 3MT project addressed how to use machine learning to track the health of salt marshes. Other finalists included: Lucy Roberts; Spencer Rosenau; Abby Sourwine; Garret Simmer; Eli Wiles; Jake Heionen; Frances Duey; and Julia Lo.