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Jamie Khoo wins People's Choice Award at the national Vitae Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals

Posted on 20 September 2018

Congratulations to Jamie Khoo, third-year PhD student from the Centre for Women's Studies, for her outstanding achievement.

Now in its sixth year in the UK, the 3MT competition invites doctoral candidates to deliver compelling three-minute presentations on their research topics. After winning the 2018 University of York 3MT earlier in the year, Jamie reached the online semi-finals before been selected as one of just six finalists from 77 participating universities. The 3MT final was held during the gala dinner at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference on Monday 17 September. Her winning presentation was titled, “But is she pretty? How women respond to beauty ideals”.  

Clare Viney, Chief Executive Officer of the Careers Research and Advisory Centre described Jamie's award-winning presentation as "a fabulous, engaging and thought-provoking 3MT presentation highlighting women's relationships with beauty ideals." This timely and accessible topic coupled with Jamie's exceptional delivery style proved immensely popular amongst the 300 plus audience members tasked with deciding the People's Choice Award. It was the only other prize to be received at the final bar the overall winner (Owen James, University of Edinburgh).


The judges, sponsors and finalists

Before returning to academia at the University of York, Jamie worked as a journalist in Kuala Lumpur for 12 years and was published in a number of notable magazines and websites including Elle Malaysia and Harper's Bazaar Malaysia. Jamie also runs her own website, which sets out to open up the conversation surrounding beauty.

Dr Karen Clegg, Head of Research Excellence Training explained the significance of the 3MT competition at the University:

"Public engagement is becoming a hallmark of the researcher experience at York. Dr Frank Soboczenski, Department of Computer Science won the first national 3MT competition in 2013, Jet Sanders, Dept of Psychology, won the York 3MT took part in the International ‘Falling Walls’ competition in 2017."

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"Frank is now a Research Associate in Public Health at Kings College London and works for the NASA Ames Research Centre, Jet is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and was invited to be a part of the Google Sci Foo event in California and will give a Ted Talk in 2019. In 2019 the University will run Research Bites as part of YorkTalks, 3MT and the second Falling Walls competition - of which dates will be confirmed later in the academic year."