ANU 3MT 2026

Good afternoon and welcome to my favorite time of the year. Three minute thesis really is the absolute highlight on the A&U calendar as far as I'm concerned. I live for it. I've been doing this since it started. You'll find out when um when I tell you later on. I'm going to talk to you a lot later. However, first of all, and just to prove the rule that the more important the guest speaker, the more important the event, would you please welcome the interim vice chancellor, Professor Rebecca Brown. >> [applause] >> Uh thank you Simon and I was really thrilled that we're listening to Madonna's new album and that she's like I mean when I was uh doing my PhD I can't remember what her songs were but they were pretty significant and pretty popular and that obviously so this is an intergenerational leader in music that we should all be looking up to. So thank you Simon. Um it's so terrific to be here with you all. Uh I acknowledge that we're meeting on the unseated and sacred lands of the Nanowal and the Nambre peoples. Um uh I pay my respects to all Aboriginal and toouristr islander peoples that would be joining us today and indeed all first peoples. Um it's wonderful to be here. This is the grand final of the threeinut thesis and I thought when I came in listening to the music I thought oh are we doing dance your PhD as well when I arrived at A&U in 2024 I was one of the judges for the 3minut thesis and um I got to see the A&U entrance for dance your PhD so maybe some of you are thinking about that as well thinking about though joining you today I thought gosh I'm so glad I didn't enter a there wasn't such uch a thing as a threeminute thesis competition. When I did my PhD 25 over 25 years ago, uh the title of my PhD be riveted was integrated urban storm water management across metropolitan Sydney and I'm I'm a civil engineer and I thought [clears throat] how would I make that relatable to everyone here? Um certainly clears any dinner parties one might have. So I've worked very hard post PhD to try and think about how my research really was relatable and matters. Um yeah and actually to do that you've got to find the story beneath your research don't you? You need to understand why it matters and actually how it's going to make the world uh a better place. For me, uh, 25 years later, I think, ah, my research was about improving the sustainability of cities, uh, joining the gap up between what experts build and what communities actually need, um, and actually standing up for the environment when it doesn't have a voice. Now, I didn't know to say that 25 years ago, but I can say that now. And all of you are thinking about that about your research right now. So, that's very exciting. So this is a really important activity being able to communicate your research in ways that uh matter because one of the issues that we have for our sector is really advocating for the social license of research and development and its contribution to the global project of of knowledge. Um because we're not an ordinary university um at A&U. We're here specifically to serve the world, to serve the nation. Um, and that's what we ask of all our scholars, and you are our scholars. Um, and we want our work to influence government, to influence industry, to influence community, to influence the public. Um, and we want it to be influencing those that have power and influencing those who are not experts in your discipline, that have not even spent probably one second reading one peer-reviewed paper in your area, but we want them to act and we want them to care. And to be able to do that, you have to be able to communicate what you're doing in ways that are meaningful to the people that have power and people that have influence and people that can change things. Um, so you're all going to be very clear. You're all going to be compelling. We know that. And we know you're not going to retreat to jargon. So it's going to be very, very hard. So congratulations to you all for for coming here because these aren't soft skills. They're talked about as soft skills. In fact, they're the hardest skills you can you can develop. So you know, today you're exemplifying what it takes to be a scholar at A&U. 3 minutes and one slide is really the most probably the most extreme version of being able to communicate complex ideas. We're all really really excited. So to our 12 finalists, this afternoon's yours. Um you've come through all the college heats uh to be here to take your place on this stage. I'm here the whole time. I'm so excited. I'm really looking forward to what you have to say. Um, and I know that you've spent the most recent weeks, I've been told, trimming, testing, timing, uh, thinking everything from fonts and colors to how you position yourself. Um, so, uh, I imagine you've been practicing in front of maybe partners, housemates, family, supervisors, maybe your dog, your animals. So, thank you to everyone who's supported everyone here that may have listened to multiple versions of your uh uh your your speech. So, um I still though still not quite sure how I would talk about my PhD. I know that I would never have made the cut. So, I'm very proud for all of you. Um you know, but you're you're stripping back. You're finding the story and you're having to explain your work. we all do to people outside of our fields and and help them understand why it matters and that that's the job for all of us to do and to continuously do that and it's not easy. So whatever the outcome is this afternoon um you've each taken something that matters deeply to you and you found a way to share it. I congratulate and celebrate you already. Yeah. Um I also acknowledge our judges. We've got some judges sitting up up the back there or sort of lower back. Yeah, thank you so much for giving up your time and your expertise. Um because it's not going to be easy. Um you know, it's not going to be easy doing this judging. Um so finalists, good luck to you all. Enjoy every second of it cuz we all will. We're all rooting for you. We're all behind you. So you're you're in a room of support. Um and back to you, Simon. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. We do indeed have 12 people sitting in the front row whose research matters and who are going to make the world a much better place. They are nervously waiting. So I'll just whiz through the housekeeping and then we can hear from them at the research. We thank you graduate research school. We thank you Lindsay Kelsey Ingga all the people behind this that make it happen. Um, there's a huge tech team, Jamie, and the cameras. Lots of people make this happen. Um, so huge thank you. We couldn't do it without you. Phones off or silent. I did decide while I was walking over today that if anyone's phone goes off or if anyone takes a call during anyone's presentation, I think they should have to give the equivalent of the first prize, which is $4,000, to the person whose presentation they interrupt. We Okay. Yeah. Okay. If you do have to go, and I don't think you should, it's 45 minutes really. You know, you can all manage 45 minutes. If you do go, the golden rule is we don't move during presentations. Okay? We rush out when people are applauding. We wait outside. We come back when people are applauding. The three minutes that we're going to hear from each of these people is the most important three minutes of the year for them. Let's not interrupt them. Okay. History. Um, a lot of you heard this before, but I'll go through it. TW 2007, Professor Alan Lawson, Rosson, an emeritus professor, long retired by now, um was in the shower. Queensland was gripped by a drought. The state governed to show that they were a can do actionorientated government, handed out threeminut timers. Okay, you put the timer in your shower, you flipped it, and you limited the amount of water that you consumed. Professor in the shower, flips it and has an absolute brain wave. Why don't we do a three-minute thesis or words to that effect. Very next year, University of Queensland does it. It is a huge success. Um I was there, they used a converted gymnasium, massive venue. It was, you know, very very exciting. It was the first time I think anyone saw an engineer stand on stage and use the word imagine. Okay. The audience was Anyway, Trans Tasman, it took off. It went gang busters. It spread throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Trans Tasman competition was born that went so big that U21 jumped in on the act and came up with the international the global competition. There'll never be a genuinely global competition simply because of the two hemispheres and the you know the the academic calendars not lining up but U21 is not a bad version. And then Asia Pacific we had people from Fiji, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan. It just spread like wildfire. We used to pre-COVID go up to Queensland once a year and we could see 300 people like these guys. It was one of the most exciting weekends of the year. Sadly, CO put an end to that and it never really bounced back. We do video submission now. But it is still a huge passport. It is known in so many universities in so many countries that to be part of 3MT to to even just to take part but also to win is is a passport. You just mention it and people know what you do and they know how good you are. These are the rules. Okay, this is the golden rule. 3 minutes, that's it. There is a big counter down here. The numbers are green, then they get orange, and then they get red. And if you go beyond red, there's the door. Okay. What I think is wonderful is that in the history of this competition, I've never seen anyone be shown the door. I mean, one of the, you know, no one has ever gone over three minutes. It's it's a difficult skill to manage, but these people do. You you develop a muscle memory for what 2 minutes 59 seconds feels like and you know when to round up quickly. It's just you, okay? You and your slide. No props, no costumes, no bits and pieces, no music, no nothing. There is absolutely nothing to support you. It's there is no safety net. Okay? You're out there with your orary skills. What they say goes, which is, you know, sort of you'd expect that. This is what you don't want to hear. Having said that, no one's going to go over three minutes, this vintage 3minut thesis bell from eBay will be rung at the end of 3 minutes. As I say, I've never heard it rung other than at the start when I demonstrate, but it's there as a threat. Judging criteria. There's two batches of grudging criteria. Comprehension and content. And I'm going to go through these quickly. engagement and communication. Those are the formal criteria. When you're judging this, it is so fast and furious. It is so intense that I in fact suggest judges ask themselves two questions. What did they say and how well did they say it and how well includes the slide and the stage craft and all those things because it really is once it gets once the three-minute thesis present starts, it is so intense and you get so sucked in that it's sort of hard to go through formal criteria. So, what story are they telling? How well are they telling it? The reason I'm telling you the judging criteria is that you also need to judge because we have a people's choice award today. So, just before you go out and get your scon and tea and coffee, we will show you a QR code and you get to vote for the person you thought was the best presenter. So, ask yourselves, what did they say? How well did they say it? [sighs] The four judges today um all know what these people are going through because they've done this. They've done it before. We have competitors from last year and the year before, winners, finalists at the back there hidden in the shadow. So, we can't really see them, but they know exactly what these people are going through. And so, they're going to assess them and they're going to come up with the the winner. These are the prizes. The antique threeminute thesis clock as well. Um I always tell the people who take part that you know the prizes are nice. Four grand wouldn't you know wouldn't be a bad thing but it's in fact it's the connections you make the skills you learn. Three minute thesis is much more than just a check you know it's much more than just an award or certificate or something. I know people who more than decade you know later are still working off the connections they made are still leveraging the skills that they developed in three-minute thesis. So three-minute thesis is such a huge foundation. All the PhDs in this room, you have to do three-minut thesis. Okay, it is the best thing other than actually writing a thesis. It is the best thing you can do during your time at CRA. Trust me. All right, two seconds while we get sorted and then we will begin. So just talk amongst yourself for about two seconds. And we're going to begin with Cecilia Xiaoquin. knee. Cecilia is a secondyear PhD candidate at the College of Science and Medicine. Her research takes on some of the world's most stubborn parasitic diseases, the kind lurking in the food we eat and the water we drink. And she's found an unlikely ally in the fight, cholesterol. So, would you please welcome our first presenter, Cecilia, who will present spicing up cholesterol, a novel cure for parasitic diseases. [applause] Say if your dog became really sick and must take the medicine to get better. But no matter how hard you try to feed them the medicine, they just keep spitting it out. So what do you do? You hide the medicine in cheese, sausages, or even peanut butter until the medicine becomes so irresistibly tasty that the dogs will always beg for more. Now, what if I told you the same trick could work against one of the deadliest parasites on Earth, plasmodium, the cause of malaria. See, malaria infects nearly 300 million people each year. And due to drug resistance, it's becoming increasingly difficult to treat. In other words, we are running out of cures. until now. For my research, just like dogs, we've identified the parasite's favorite food, cholesterol. Plasmodium needs cholesterol to survive and multiply for the essential task of building its cellular membrane. But here's the catch. Since it cannot synthesize its own cholesterol, it must steal it from us. So we can exploit this by chemically attaching existing antimmalarial drugs to cholesterol. Disguising drug as food, we tricked the parasites into eating them. By doing so, the drugs became 40 times more effective at killing the parasite as it is now given as something the parasite needs to survive. For my PhD, I play the role of a Michelin star chef. Except my dinus are parasites. I serve them with different cholesterol drug combinations and see what tickles their fancy. Using drug essays, I measure how effectively each formulation is taken up. Then I refine the recipe, making treatment stronger, more stable, and easier to absorb, all while reducing toxicity towards the host. Then I carefully handpick the most promising compounds for further drug testing in ethically approved animal models, aiming to bridge the gap between laboratory research and real world treatments. And this doesn't just stop at malaria. Many other parasites that cause life-threatening diseases, whether in us, our pets, or the wider world, also critically depend on cholesterol. So guess what? I'm testing this drug delivery strategy on them as well because ultimately my research aims to rethink how we deliver antiparasitic drugs to make them more effective, more targeted, and harder for resistance to develop. Because sometimes the best way to defeat a parasite is to give it exactly what it wants, just with a deadly twist. >> [applause] [snorts] >> Thank you, Cecilia. Our second presenter, Le Fu, comes to us from China and is now a PhD candidate in computational material science where he is simulating the motion of molecules and atoms to help design new materials for energy and for the environment. off the clock. He will tell you he's also aiming to be a film producer, a podcaster, a writer, and a basketball player all at once. Would you please welcome Le Fu, who's going to present Lego at the molecular level. [applause] I love Lego. I'm sure we all love Lego. I find Lego fascinating because you can always connect those simple bricks to construct very complex structures. What I research is a bit like Lego but as a molecular level. They are two-dimensional materials or 2D materials. They're basically a single layer of atoms which is about 1 million times thinner than a piece of paper. 2D materials stick to each other naturally. That means you can easily connect different pieces of them together to create any structure you like. By doing that, scientists are making structures to improve the performance of electronic devices and make green energy storage more efficient. So far, there are more than 1,000 different 2D materials that have been identified, but there are not that many applicable structures that have been constructed by simply connecting different pieces of them together. The main reason is the traditional way of making something which is experimenting in the lab is very similar to assembling a Lego set in reality. You assemble one bag of Lego bricks at one time. That means probably after one hour you end up finding what you make doesn't look like the picture on the box. In the lab that experiment can take more than a week before you find one disappointing result. In my PhD, instead of experimenting in the lab, I experiment on my computer. That allows me to simultaneously assemble hundreds of bags of Lego bricks. What I normally do is I first connect different pieces of 2D materials to construct different structures on my computer just like a digital designer of Lego product. And then I will do a quality check of the product I just made. For example, I will give them some compression or tension to see how strong they are or I will give like turn up the temperature heating them to see how stable they are. I'm using a simulation technique called a molecular dynamics which allows me to track the motion of every molecule in any system so that I can simulate the behavior of any structure under any condition. Right now, I'm making some structures that can not only install hydrogen but also control electric current. I hope one day in the future, because of the tiny stuff I'm traveling right now, in this big world, you can have faster mobile phones powered by cheaper electricity which comes from greener energy sources. [applause] >> [applause] [snorts] >> Next we have Mary Joyce Bulauo. Mary Joyce is a PhD candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs. Before coming to A&U, she was a faculty member and chairperson of the social sciences department at the Atune Danaga University in the Philippines. Would you please welcome Mary Joyce presenting Built to Last. What would happen if every political party in Australia disappeared overnight? No labor, no liberal, no nationalists, all of them gone. Who would organize election campaigns? Who would mobilize voters? Who would connect politicians to local communities? For most Australians, that sounds unimaginable. But in the Philippines, it's not a hypothetical question. Political parties, are we? Politicians switch parties all the time, and parties exist only for election purposes, but elections still happen. Voters are still mobilized, and politicians remain connected to local communities. So how in Philippine cities these functions are performed by organizations known as political machines? Political machines are networks. At the top is a politician and beneath them are community leaders and local brokers who know their community well and solve problems for them. They connect political leaders to thousands, millions of voters. Some of these machines are so successful that they dominate the same city for decades, even generations. Others disappear after only a few elections. Why? You probably say, "Aha, it's the Philippines. It's probably money or patronage or political dynasties." Well, you see, those factors matter, but they don't tell the whole story. My research suggests we've been looking at the wrong place. We've been looking at the politician. We should be looking at the organization. I examine how political machines recruit, mobilize supporters, distribute benefits, u maintain loyalty, maintain uh cohesion and control, and adapt when political conditions change. These characteristics determine whether political machines can remain competitive over time. In other words, political machines don't endorse simply because they're leaders are powerful. They're built to last because they're adaptable. The Philippines reminds us that political parties are not the only way democracies organized political competition. And by understanding why some machines endure while others decline, we gain a deeper understanding of how political power persists and eventually changes in Philippine cities. Next we have Gethka Vinot from originally from India. Gethiga is a secondyear PhD candidate at the research school of physics. Outside the lab, she's an artist and she's drawn to intricate patterns and acrylic painting. And that same love of creating something new has led her to build tiny nanopores that can detect toxic metal ions in water. Would you please welcome Saigatika presenting a tiny hole with a big mission. Nanopore detection of heavy metal ions in water. >> [clears throat] >> Did you all know that Australia experiences as many as 60,000 bush fires every year? When the fire is gone, we think the danger is over. But for our waterways, the story is just beginning. When the flames die down and the rain returns, bush fires quietly wash several toxic metal ions such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and so on from burnt soil and ashes into nearest waterways. Now, let's take a glass of that water. It looks clean. It feels safe, but it is not. And that is the danger. We cannot see what is harming us. These metal ions are like invisible intruders. And over a period of time, they can cause serious neurological and developmental damages. In 2025, several children being hospitalized due to lead contamination in Perth reminded us that the consequences of exposure are very real. So the question is no longer if this happens, but how quickly we can detect it before it reaches people. Today detection often means sending water samples to lab and waiting days for results. Contamination does not wait. Now what if I say we can spot it instantly using a sensor small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. And that's what my PhD research is working towards using a technology called nanopore sensing. A n anopore is a tiny hole so small that around 10,000 of them could fit across the width of a single human hair. Surprisingly, this tiny hole could be our solution. I turned these nanoparts into molecular security checkpoints. Anything that passes through leaves behind a fingerprint. But these metal ions are too small to identify themselves. So I give my nanopores a helping hand using specially designed DNA molecules. When target metal ion binds to the DNA molecule, they shapeshift and leave behind a unique electrical signal while they pass through the nanopore. In practice, I take the water sample, treat them with DNA molecules, and just like investigators matching fingerprints at crime scene, I use these signals to understand the presence of toxic metal ions in real time. In simple terms, I'm a physicist using DNA and nanopore technology to reveal what our eyes cannot see. One day, this technology could allow communities spot contamination instantly right where the water is being used. Bushfires may be unavoidable in Australia, but the silent contamination they leave behind shouldn't have to be because sometimes the smaller structures that we build, a tiny hole can accomplish a very big mission. Next we have Subashini Wira. Originally from Sri Lanka, Subashini is a third-year PhD candidate from the research school of management. Before starting her PhD, she spent 10 years as a senior lecturer at a Sri Lankan State University and now brings that experience into research on identity management, marginalized communities and diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Would you please welcome Subashini presenting Behind the Mask. Imagine [applause] every morning before you go to work if you had to put on a mask, not a real one, a mask that who you are which hides who you are. For many of the lesbian women who are in the corporate setting in Sri Lanka, this is their daily reality. Sri Lanka the pearl of the Indian notion a beautiful nation with many kind-hearted people yet this was under British regime prior to 1948 the British rulers imposed rules and regulations to criminalize the same sex relationships in 1886 not only that this society is highly rooted with the traditional patriarchical values and considers heterosexual uality as paramount. So this creates an uncertainty for many of the lesbian women in Sri Lanka and they tend to hide their sexual orientation from others. So this motivates me to ask a simple but important question. How do lesbian women navigate her sexual identity at work and how different institutional forces shape this process? To answer this question, I interviewed 50 employees. For an example, lesbian employees, queer activists, corporate professionals, as well as government officials and policy makers. What I found was kind of painful, but it's very powerful. They said, I don't have one identity. I have two identities. One for work and one for rest of my life. Also it is apparent that identity navigation is not just a simple choice for them. It is an institutionally embedded process for them. They assess the law. They assess the society. They assess the culture. They assess the organization. They assess the people around them because a single misjudgment could end their career. So my research is aims to bring these multiple forces together and create a conducive environment for lesbian women where they can feel accepted as who they are. So my hope in one day not to hear I have two identities two lives instead just one life just one identity and her true self. Thank you. [applause] >> Next, we have Zoe Davis. Zoe is a third-year PhD candidate at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies. Her work explores how colonial legacies still shape inequality today, from gendered bias to skewed histories. and her current research zeros in on a British era legacy in the Arabian Gulf that still traps migrant workers in conditions akin to modern-day slavery. Would you please welcome Zoe Davis with What the British Left Behind? Isn't soccer great? There's probably a few of us here today and a little bit blur eyed from waking up early to watch France be Morocco. Commiserations to Morocco. Men like Hassan here from Bangladesh. They're often relied upon to build the infrastructure for these big international sporting events. That was certainly the case in 2022 for the Qatar World Cup. Thousands of migrants were imported into the region from poor countries across the world and they toiled in a labor regime often described as a form of modernday slavery. Why? Well, global economics is normally blamed. But missing from this assumption is how these labor regimes, they have a past, a colonial past. And that's what my research set out to investigate. It scoured the archives, thousands of handwritten notes, reports produced on typewriters, and what it revealed is a truth too often overlooked in the pages of history. the truth about the actions of one very important player, the British, because we often overlook just how active and influential the British were in the Arabian Gulf in the 1800s. The archives clearly show that British interventions purposely altered the local dynamics of trade and with it the local dynamics of labor. And if you follow this thread of labor, it shows that men like Hassan here, they are ins snared in a regime of labor that is not new, but one inherited from British interventions and now appropriated into local systems of state power. But this is more than just a story about the afterles of British colonialism. It's a powerful example that speaks to the truth about our global economies and how too often they depend on labor regimes that are prone to exploitation. And this is not just academic research. This is a call to action for us to better understand how our histories perpetuate inequality and how by rethinking the past, we have an opportunity to reshape the future. into one that is far more equitable and not just for men like Assan but for us all. Thank you. [applause] We're halfway through now. Our seventh presenter is Somaya Zad. Somaya is a final year PhD candidate in the school of computing working across data science and privacy. She's passionate about the responsible use of data and her research explores how personal information can be encoded and handled securely protecting people while still unlocking insights that advance research. She's also quick to credit the village that CRA has become to her and made it feel like home. So would you please welcome Sumaya presenting creating the bigger picture connecting the dots while protecting you. >> [applause] >> You are being watched. When you looked up your fastest route to work this morning, maps knew exactly where you were. Your watch knows how many hours of sleep you got last night, while Amazon had a pretty good idea about what you wanted to splurge on just before you fell asleep. Facebook knows who your friends are, while Meta is building a map of your social world. One like, one comment, one repost at a time. Yet, none of these organizations knows everything about you on their own. But when your data is linked together, it reveals far more than you can ever imagine. It uncovers deeply intimate insights into your life, your routines, and your relationships. This sounds scary, but what if those very same insights can be used to improve the quality of your life without revealing who you are? And that is the promise of my research. to be able to link your data held across different sources to create a much bigger and insightful picture of who you are while you remain anonymous. In [snorts] doing so, all of the disconnected pieces of information about you work together to make a lot more sense. They help researchers understand complex patterns which could lead to discoveries that saves a life or even improves that of millions of people all while you remain anonymous. While existing data linkage techniques achieve this using complicated configurations, in my research I develop linkage techniques which use a single parameter, just one number. It controls the entire process of transforming your sensitive data into an encoded format which can then be analyzed and linked without revealing who you are. I put this idea to test using large realworld population data sets. And my results show that this technique is efficient and secure while also keeping the process simple and largely automated. that implies that this technique can be successfully adopted in the real world. So taking a step back, let me ask a more impactful question. How can we use this vast amounts of data available about you and me for the greater social good? And that is why I am passionate about my research to promote the responsible use of our data while preserving our privacy to create a more safe, fair, and just society for me, for you, and generations to come. Thank you. [applause] Presenter number eight is Daisy Wong. Daisy is a PhD candidate in the department of applied epi ep epidemiology with a background that spans medical research and government. Her work focuses on the epidemiology of tuberculosis using whole genome sequencing to strengthen public health surveillance. So would you please welcome Daisy who will talk to us today about uncovering your deep dark secrets what I can see from your TB. [applause] If I take a bacteria from your body and I look at its genome, what do you think I can learn about you? Do you think it's nothing because the bacteria genome is separate from your own genome? Or could I learn something about you? Could I learn your deepest, darkest secrets? Now, before I answer that question, let me tell you about the bacteria that I'm researching, tuberculosis, or TB for short. Now, I'm guessing that one in four of you is currently thinking to yourself, "Is TB even a problem in the modern world?" And I'm guessing that's what you're thinking because that's the most common question I get when I talk about my PhD. But that figure, one in four, that's how many people in the world who are estimated to have been infected by TB bacteria. In 2024, over 10.7 million people fell ill with TB disease. That's over 20 times the population of CRA in just one year. My PhD is in TB epidemiology. This means I'm essentially acting as a disease detective to understand the spread and drivers of disease. I'm also looking into how we can use genomic sequencing as a new tool in our disease detective toolkit. When two people have been infected by a bacteria where the genome is very similar or identical, this can suggest that the bacteria pass directly from one person to the next. So first I look at TB in Australia using traditional epidemiological information. However, using this approach I actually can't get a good understanding of how TB is spreading from one person to the next and I can't pinpoint things such as outbreaks. So next I zoom into the act and I link epidemiological information together with genomic information. By doing this I can then see how TB is spreading between one person to the next which luckily in our case is not too much. Then I look at a TB outbreak this time in Victoria and I ask public health staff how they're using genomic sequencing in their outbreak investigation. Contact tracing staff were able to use genomic sequencing information to better understand links between people and they were even able to trace transmission back to a specific medical clinic using genomic sequencing and implement additional TB screening there. So can looking at a bacteria from your body tell me your deepest darker secrets? Probably not. But it can help us to better understand links between people and places which answers important questions like how disease is spreading in a population. This new tool in our disease detective toolkit can help us to better understand and stop infectious diseases in their tracks. Thank you. Our ninth presenter is Nia Muna. Nia is a secondy year PhD candidate in the department of health, economics, well-being and society at NCH. She completed her bachelor's and masters in public health in Indonesia and then worked in a hospital from 2015 before moving into lecturing in hospital administration. Her research now looks at the role of public and private health insurance in achieving universal health coverage in Indonesia. Would you please welcome Nia who will talk to us today about health insurance beyond coverage. When I was a kid, my father had a stroke and my family had to choose between medical bills or simply putting rice on the table. And in just two years, he passed away. In 2014, my mother got the same illness. But luckily, at the same time, Indonesia launched National Health Insurance. So unlike my father, she received the treatment for free and she could live long enough to see me graduate. This is why one person is missing in the photo. For families like mine, national health insurance was more than a policy. It was hope. It can bring access to the fundamental human right to health. This is why my PhD is about health insurance because I know personally that health insurance can mean the different between losing someone and spending more time with them. But my first project using 10 years national representative data shows that while the public insurance expanding, those who previously have private insurance drop it and switch to the public system instead. And at the same time, hospital utilization is increasing. Those who are healthier and wealthier may still rely on private insurance and living the public system concentrated with the people who are sicker, older and financially vulnerable just like my mom. This condition bring a huge fiscal pressure into the program and raises an important question. What is the future of national health insurance in Indonesia? What can we do to keep this program sustained while the cost continue to rise? So my next project will investigate how public and private insurance can work together under the scheme of coordination of benefit for financing sustainability because universal health coverage it's not only about expanding coverage but also ensuring that the program sustained for the future generation. I often think about the different between my father and my mother. My father lived before national health insurance but my mother lived because of it and my research helps to ensure that the future generation can say the same. Thank you. [applause] Next we have Okurite Itumo. Originally from Nigeria, Okurit is a PhD candidate supported by the CSRO and is researching how urban green spaces can support native bees and how urbanization shapes the flowers they rely on. She's also fascinated by the taxonomy of Australian native bees, many of which are still poorly understood. Outside her research, she loves to travel and always has music playing in the background. Would you please welcome Okarete presenting what's on the changing menu for native beers. [applause] When I first arrived in Australia, I faced a completely new menu. The taste, the texture, and smell were different. The familiar food that connected me to home were no longer around me. But I had a choice. I could search until I found the familiar food again. Native bees do not have that choice. They cannot open Google map and search native flowers near me. They can only feed on what we leave for them. In Australia, native bees have evolved with native plants. These plants are their familiar menu. As CRA under goes urbanization, native plants are being replaced with non-native plants. So, I wanted to know what was now on the menu for native bees and if this menu has changed over time. My research compared historical bees preserved in museum collections with contemporary bees using pollen DNA method a molecular technique that identifies mixed pollins from plants. So I found out that native bees and historical bees fed on the same menu. Great. More surprisingly, I found out that contemporary bees fed on more native plants than non-native plants. Also great. Here's the catch. Historical and contemporary bees fed on a different menu. Their menu had changed over time. This matters because as CRA undergoes urbanization, the native plants available to native bees might change. For specialist bees, losing one or two key plants may mean losing their entire menu and eventually going extinct. Imagine a world without these unsung heroes that pollinate our wild plants and crops. When be population decline, pollination weakens. Wild plant produces less seed, crop produces less fruit, and our own food menu might change. What if you wake up and your favorite apples and blueberries have disappeared? Think about it. There's hope. My research identified the native plant that are still on the menu for native bees by protecting and preserving these native plants will help native bees keep a familiar menu thereby sustaining population pollination, wild plant reproduction, crop reproduction and the food on our menu. For native bees, flowers are not just decorations. Flowers are survival. If we want a city that supports life and not just building, we need to put native plants back on the menu. Thank you. Next, we will hear from Aisha Chri. Aisha is a PhD candidate in the school of culture, history, and language. Her research has always been shaped by questions of identity, gender, and belonging. From her earlier work on diaspora and interethnic marriage to her current thesis exploring what it means to remain single as a woman in urban Pakistan where marriage is so often treated as a social expectation. Would you please welcome Aisha who's going to present flipping the script single Muslim women in Raal Pindi, Pakistan. [applause] In a context such as urban Pakistan, marriage is everywhere. This especially is the case when one considers how marriage forms a major focal point for the social, economic, political and religious organization of the everyday. Because of this, single women are marginalized, their aspirations and dreams cut short. If one takes this in tandem with on one hand the global media narratives on the decline of marriage and on the other hand the plight of the Muslim woman as oppressed such statements can seem to to become very compelling. However, is this actually the case? I myself am a single woman who has spent most of my life in the city of Rahul Pindi Pakistan. And when I come across these global narratives, I find myself undergoing a very deep-seated sense of alienation. Am I not a person with emotions and feelings? Why can't my experiences and perceptions about the world along with other single women who are in similar circumstances to mine be acknowledged for what they actually are? Ri with contradictions and complexities. very similar to the paintings behind me drawn by one of these single women. It is exactly this sentiment that I kept at the forefront of my mind when I began my research in the city of Rahul Pindi. I met up with other single women. I I interviewed them while also spending time with them, their family members and their acquaintances and their everyday activities. Uh in doing so, I actually realized what if I flipped the script. So instead of taking marginalization as my point, as my starting point, why don't I just sit down and just listen to what these women were actually trying to tell me? In doing so, I became aware of a very important ability that these women have, and that is the ability to introspect. In more simpler terms, they had the ability to think very hard about what was going on around them as things were happening. What acknowledging introspection did is that it provided dimension to the aspirations of these women where for me their lives began to form sorts of multicolored tapestries that were unfinished but were extremely vivid and intricate in their formations again referring to the pictures behind me. Now where daycart says I think therefore I am. I argue that this statement should be I introspect therefore I am. Not necessarily because these women rationalize thought but rather because they are also inspired by a very Quranic urge to reflect on matters of the external world in a bit to achieve what they would call a very Islamic form of self-actualization. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Now we have our 12th and last presenter. Turgal Namsai is a PhD candidate at NC researching how lifestyle and health factors shape brain health as we age. She's passionate about helping people understand what they can actually do to stay mentally sharp in later life. Would you please welcome Tuggle presenting Can We Age and Stay Sharp? [applause] >> This is my grandma Nam. And at 8 I at almost 90 we found her up on the roof fixing it actually and we were mortified. And in the shops she exactly knew how much everything would add up to. She didn't just leave long. She actually stays sharp. Why? I wonder. Now, let's think back on your day yesterday. You got up from your bed. You moved around. You felt some type of emotions. And you probably went back to sleep in the evening. And that's part of us living. Yet, for decades, we treated sleep as optional. We overlooked our emotions and we just stop moving. But what if these were the key to keeping our brain healthy? Our thinking, our memories, and then our identity as we age, because that's the inevitable. And as we age, brain diseases like dementia are rising. And there are over 55 million people living with it with no cure. And that's why prevention is our best tool. We know several risk factors that explain half the cases of the dementia, but the remaining other half we've got no idea. And that's where my research comes in. I use large longitudinal studies that follow people over a long period of time to understand how to keep the brain healthy with a particular focus on sleep. You may ask why sleep? Well, a lot happens during sleep. Emotions are regulated, memories are formed, and the toxic waste that's linked to dementia is cleared away from the brain. But there is a problem. We've been treating sleep as a snapshot and we isolated it from the other factors like physical activity and depression. When in reality, we sleep every single night and our behaviors are connected to each other. So in our my research I took sleep, exercise and depression and looked at how they shape the brain health and we found that in midlife people who have been sleeping poorly have got lower memory than people who've been sleeping well in the last decade but that's not the whole story. The effects were strongest in men who were not active who got depression. So in other words keeping our brain healthy is not just about getting good night of sleep. It's about having healthy behaviors, maintaining it throughout the life. And that's what my grandma did well. She kept her thinking, her memories, and her identity up until the very end. Thank you. [applause] And let's have one last round of applause for all 12 presenters. [applause] >> [applause] >> Okay, we're going to take a short break for tea coffee and scones, but remember this is your time to judge. The judges are going to have to make this decision. You can do the same thing. Ask yourself these questions. What I'm going to do is show you a QR code. You point your phone at it. It'll take you to a vote and you can help us choose the people's choice vote. So before you go and have your tea and coffee and scon, make your vote and then pop outside 15 minutes when you hear this. Come back for the judges decisions. Okay, what we're going to do is to get our contestants to come back on stage for one last round of applause because you did such a brilliant job. Everyone up. [applause] One more time. Congratulations. Well done. >> [applause] >> And now, just as a reminder, what's at stake here, just to build the tension, we're going to announce the second prize, then the first prize, and then the people's choice to see if you made the same decision as the judges. Prizes will be presented by the interim vice chancellor. In second place, congratulations go to Cecilia. >> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> Well done. And now the winner of the 2026 A&U 3minut thesis competition taking home $4,000. Would you please congratulate Turgle? [applause] And now, let's see if you made the same decision as the judges. Winning the 2026 People's Choice Award is Cecilia. [applause] One last congratulations for everyone [applause] and a huge thank you to you for coming for seeing this this afternoon. As I say, this is the highlight of the year. We do this every year because we love it so much. I can't give you an exact date, but I'd like to see you here next year for the 2027 3MT. Thanks for coming. Good afternoon. [applause]