Chemistry Doctoral Student Cristina Hirschbiegel Wins 2025 Three Minute Thesis Competition

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Dean Urla with 3MT winner and co-runner ups.

Cristina Hirschbiegel, a doctoral student in chemistry, was named the winner of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for her presentation, “Nanozymes for Smarter Cancer Treatment,” at the event held March 7 in Old Chapel.

Hirschbiegel was selected by a distinguished panel of judges as the winner in the live campus final, while the audience in attendance also voted her presentation as the recipient of the People’s Choice award. 

Presented by the Graduate School, the 3MT challenges graduate students to describe their research in an engaging manner, using non-technical language, all in three minutes or less.

There was a tie for 3MT runner-up, with the judges selecting both Maria Victoria Acevedo-Estupinan, doctoral student in food science, for her presentation “How Oleosome Package Impacts Oxidation in Walnuts,” and Bachir Messikh, doctoral student in polymer science and engineering, for his presentation “Pushing the Boundaries of Cellulose: The Endless Potential of Nature’s Most Abundant Material.”

Ten finalists representing nine different graduate programs competed in the 3MT campus final. As UMass’s 3MT winner, Hirschbiegel will go on to compete in the regional 3MT in April, along with 3MT winners from over 25 other graduate schools in the northeastern United States and Canada.

The 3MT Campus Final also included the Images of Research competition, featuring images submitted by graduate students and postdocs. A selection of 35 finalists were named and posted to Instagram, with winners named in multiple categories. The Instagram Favorite winner was “Nanoparticles,” by Astha Khanal, master’s student in civil and environmental engineering. The Graduate School staff chose “Bee on a Sunflower,” by Elyse McCormick, a doctoral student in organismic and evolutionary biology, as their winner, and the Images of Research People’s Choice winner was “Pirate Cells,” by Samantha Schultz, a doctoral student in molecular and cellular biology.

More information about the competition can be found on the Graduate School’s website, and additional videos for the runners-up and past 3MT winners and runners-up can be found on the Graduate School’s YouTube channel.