If you are a Ph.D. student, you might already know about 3MT. It started at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. Soon many other institutions joined them and it became an international competition. At a 3MT, graduate students explain their research to "educated, but non-specialist" audience, in 3 minutes with the help of only one static slide (meaning no animations). Many universities conduct their own 3MTs and their winners compete at the international 3MT. But for us graduate students it is also an experience that we don't get during our regular graduate life.
It's an incredible opportunity to share your research and the excitement you feel about it with people outside your research area. Quite often as scientists progress through their research, they get lost into the intricate details of their theories, models and experiments, and lose the sight of the bigger picture. It is not because they don't know the motivation behind their research, but because they feel that motivation in the language of equations, graphs, instruments and algorithms! However, all these scientific endeavors are meaningless if we ignore the big picture that science is essentially meant to advance the society. That is why our research is funded by the taxpayer's money. So we should definitely share with people how well we are utilizing their money.
Research in many fields of fundamental sciences, like particle physics, doesn't bear a fruit for years or decades. They cannot show a product, a technology, financial or health benefits as a result of their research. Hence, the importance of their research is not easily appreciated, beyond the appreciation as an amusing topic of pop science. This happens mainly because people are not educated about the significance of these fields; they are not aware how the seeds of all the technological advancements are always planted in such fundamental scientific research. As scientists, who feel such an excitement and motivation to work in these research areas, we should take initiative in communicating about our research and its importance to public audiences. To keep advancing the science and technology research, it is essential that new students, researchers join the research community. It is possible only if we reach out to public audiences, the kids and share with them our excitement about science. We need to convey to them what it is in the "bigger picture" that motivates us to pursue our research. It's not unusual, especially for graduate students to be completely unaware or unable to express what that "big picture" motivation is behind their research. And that is why 3MT is the that unique opportunity for graduate students to introspect, to come out of our shells, .. I mean labs, did I say shells?!.. and make the best out of this opportunity to consolidate your research and convey to people why is that your science matters to them!
Want to practice your science communication skills? Tell your friends and family about your research, read science blogs. There are some amazing science blogs out their; few of my favorite are "The Empirical Zeal" by Aatish Bhatia (@aatishb) on WIRED, "Quantum Frontiers" by Caltech, "Preposterous Universe" by Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll), etc. So just get started!
Whether you're thinking of pursuing a career in academia, in industry or working on your own startup, being able to convey your ideas, research, their benefits and limitations to people is an definitely a useful skill to develop. Many of my fellow participants in 3MT told me that this competition helped them boost their confidence and public speaking skills. For me it was also a great satisfaction that I was able to convey a rigorous topic in particle physics to public audiences!
