Nine Cornell research degree students will be advancing to the final round of the 2026 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT), having competed in a pool of 23 students in the preliminary round. The students and their fields are:
- Subash Bhandari, biomedical engineering
- Neti Bhatt, physics
- Aminat Ibrahim, biomedical engineering
- Abbey Kalay, biomedical and biological sciences
- Katherine Koebel, biomedical and biological sciences
- Delia Tota, microbiology
- Jonathan Segal, information science
- Pia Spychalla, plant breeding and genetics
- Ellen van Wijngaarden, mechanical engineering
The final competition will be held live at 251 Malott Hall on Wednesday, March 18 at 3 p.m., and all Cornell community members are invited to attend. A Zoom option will be available for audience members unable to attend in person.
A panel of judges with connections to the Cornell community will evaluate students on how well they presented a compelling story on their thesis or dissertation and its significance in just three minutes in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience with the aid of only one, static slide, and audience members will vote to select the People’s Choice Award winner.
