PhD student has his eyes on the prize

Have you ever failed to find something even though it was right in front of you? UQ PhD student Will Harrison may be able to help.

Mr Harrison recently won the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences final of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, and will now progress to the UQ 3MT Finals on September 20.

Developed by UQ in 2008, the 3MT is a skills development activity that challenges research higher degree (RHD) students to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.

“The main reason I took part in the Three Minute Thesis competition was to tell a wide audience about my research,” Mr Harrison said.

“The fact is that not everyone reads scientific publications, and I feel that as a researcher I have a responsibility to the public to communicate with them what I do, and what I discover.”

An honours graduate in psychology, Mr Harrison discovered a love of research that led him to his current study into understanding the relationship between how we move our eyes, and how we focus our attention.

“My aim is to understand how our brains coordinate eye movements with shifts of attention to accomplish simple tasks like playing sports or crossing a road,” he said.

“My findings tell us why we sometimes fail to see something right in front of us and may help us to understand medical conditions in which vision and attention are compromised following a stroke.”

Significant growth in the popularity of the event has led UQ to host the inaugural Australia & New Zealand 3MT Competition in 2010 as part of its Centenary celebrations.

Mr Harrison will compete with seven other students in the UQ 3MT Finals on Monday 20 September, with the winner representing the University in the inaugural Australia & New Zealand final on Tuesday September 21.

Prizes at both events include a $5,000 travel grant for the winner, $2,000 travel grant for the runner-up and $1,000 travel grant for the people’s choice award.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the finals, to be held in the UQ Centre Exhibition Hall at St Lucia from 3:30pm.

Master of Ceremonies is award-winning science writer, broadcaster and regular judge on ABC TV’s The New Inventors, Ms Bernie Hobbs, by arrangement with Claxton Speakers International.

You can register attendance at the 3MT events by visiting www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/3MT.

Media: Jessica Gallagher (07 3346 0508, j.gallagher@uq.edu.au) or Carly Dengate at the UQ Graduate School (07 3346 0509, c.dengate@uq.edu.au)