Jennifer Harrell, a Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences, earned first place in Missouri S&T’s 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Her presentation, “Running on Empty: The Metabolic Price of Inadequate Sleep,” impressed the judges. She will advance to the regional 3MT competition hosted by the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools in Kansas City in March 2026.

Other awardees:

• Runner-up: Effat Eskandari, Ph.D. student in geological engineering and Kummer I&E Doctoral Fellow — “Healthy Soils, Healthy Future: Using Drones and Machine Learning to Transform Agriculture.”
• People’s Choice Award: Peter Ogunjinmi, Ph.D. student in civil engineering — “Underwater Inspection of Bridge Scour Using Remotely Operated 3D Sonar Imaging.”

Additional finalists included Muhammad Haris Javed (civil engineering) and Mohsen Mohammadi Beirami (mechanical engineering).

Judges included John Butz, Dr. Kate Drowne, William Smith, Faith Barnes and Angelica Nuno, with additional campus and community members participating in earlier rounds.

The 3MT® competition originated at the University of Queensland, Australia, and is now held at more than 900 universities worldwide.