Students who have advanced to candidacy are strongly encouraged to enter the 3MT contest.

The more students who enter, the more meaningful it will be to compete; and I believe that more students will participate if they know that they do so with their faculty mentors' blessings. It will take a little time, of course, for them to prepare their talks, but this is time well spent. Being able to talk about their research in a clear, concise way is a crucial skill for our students to have. So, win or not, they will all get something valuable out of participating.

Students must declare their intent to enter by September 1, by filling out this very short online form: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/graddiv3mt.

The Graduate Division is awarding substantial cash prizes — $3,000 for the winner, $1,500 for the runner-up, and $750 for the "people's choice" winner, who will be chosen by the audience present at the culminating 3MT event on October 29 at Mission Bay.

Chancellor Hawgood and Dr. Bruce Alberts have agreed to be final judges at the live 3MT event on October 29. From outside UCSF, we'll have outstanding science journalists/advocates Ben Lillie, Gabriela Quirós, and Indre Viskontas. We also have a great team of seven "screening judges," who will choose the finalists based on video entries. These are UCSF faculty members Vincanne Adams, Kaveh Ashrafi, Wallace Marshall, and Saul Villeda; plus UCSF science writers Claire Conway and Jeff Norris; as well as former GDAA president and GSICE coordinator Alex Schnoes.

Students can get all the details about the competition and access to some useful 3MT resources on the Graduate Division website here: http://graduate.ucsf.edu/3mt

Jeannine Cuevas, communications director for the Graduate Division (email [email protected], tel. 514-4852), is managing this initiative, and she is also happy to answer any questions you or students may have.