Stephanie Thomson, from the School of the Arts, Department of Communication and Media, has been crowned winner of the 2025 University of Liverpool ‘Three Minute Thesis’ (3MT®) competition for her presentation “Femtech fertility ads: selling the illusion of reproductive control”.
Stephanie received a prize of a £100 voucher and will go on to represent the University at the UK quarter finals competition to be hosted by Vitae in June.
Rukun Khalaf (above with guest judge Dr Martha Beard, Vitae) from the Institute of Population Health, was selected as this year’s judges’ runner-up, having impressed the judging panel with her presentation on “Mother’s Nature: the environment and pregnancy”.
Bethany Facer (pictured above with Dr Matthew Greenhall, Director of Libraries Museums and Galleries), from the Institute of Systems, Molecular & Integrative Biology, won the People’s Choice Award, which was voted for by the audience on the day, with her presentation “Back to the Brain: Mapping Parkinson’s Pathways”.
The University of Liverpool’s 3MT® grand final took place on 18 June in the Hope Street Hotel and saw eight researchers from across the three Faculties present in front of a panel of judges and a live audience to be crowned Liverpool’s champion.
The presentations covered a diverse range of research topics from Parkinson’s disease to the preservation of collagen in dinosaur bone fossils.
Dr James Howard, Director of the Academy, said:
“Many congratulations to Stephanie, Bethany and Rukun on their awards. The 3MT® Final is fast establishing itself as one of the most highly anticipated events in the University calendar. This year’s finalists and winners again highlighted the sheer depth of talent in our postgraduate community and the judges were hugely impressed by all the presentations. 3MT® provides a fantastic development opportunity and I’d encourage PGRs across the University to consider entering the competition in 2026”.
The finalists
This year’s 3MT finalists pictured with Vice Chancellor Professor Tim Jones. Pictures by Gareth Jones.
Selected from a series of Faculty heats, the nine University of Liverpool entries who made it to the final were:
Adefola Toye “How do you build universities for a new nation?” (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Rukun K.S. Khalaf “Mother’s Nature: the environment and pregnancy” (Health and Life Sciences)
Sharon Cooksey “Feel the fear …. and do it anyway?” (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Concetta Gigante “Restoring Banks’ Resilience and Saving the Economy” (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Farah Isse Mumin “Pandemics Begin in Communities — So Should Prevention” (Health and Life Sciences)
Farkhondeh Vahdati “Holographic Construction in Design for Disassembly of Shekili-inspired emergency shelters” (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Stephanie Thomson “Femtech fertility ads: selling the illusion of reproductive control” (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Bethany Facer “Back to the Brain: Mapping Parkinson’s Pathways” (Health and Life Sciences)
Lucien Tuinstra “Collagen in bone fossils” (Science and Engineering)
What is 3MT®?
The 3MT® challenges researchers to present their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, using just one slide. It was developed by the University of Queensland in 2008 and since its inaugural event, the popularity of the competition has reached global levels, with 900 universities holding events across 85 countries.