PhD student shines at HKU 3MT® Competition

Ms Meng Jiang, PhD student in Dental Public Health won the second runner up among nine finalists at the HKU Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition on 23 June 2020 at Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House, HKU.

Ms Jiang’s presentation was on the topic “Clinical Trial on Restoring Untreated and SDF-treated Dentine Caries Lesions". “I have been working on this project for more than 3 years, almost all my PhD study period,” said Ms Jiang. It was a great experience to present her years of efforts at the HKU 3MT® Competition.

Although Ms Jiang knows her thesis like the back of her hand, she said that she was very nervous, and her legs were shaking at the beginning of the presentation. She recalled seeing her two supervisors, Professor Edward Lo, Professor, Chair in Dental Public Health and Professor May Wong, Professor in Dental Public Health in the audience. “They were so nice and came to the competition site to support me.” Soon, she gathered herself and shifted the focus from fear to the true purpose of the presentation, which was to tell her audience a good story. Thus, she started with a joke and tried to make everyone including herself laugh to build a relaxing atmosphere. “I felt that I was the luckiest contestant to have two supervisors to back me up. Thought more practice is needed to overcome stage fright,” she smiled.

Her 3 years of hard work and quick reaction on stage brought her the second runner up award. She was excited and honoured and would like to share her happiness and pride with her two supervisors. She was grateful to both for guiding her all along during her studies. In the future, she will continue to work on community dental projects to improve the oral health of the general public.

She encouraged others to participate in the HKU 3MT® Competition: “it is challenging to tell people a research story in only 3 minutes. However, it is worth doing so! It reminded me of how meaningful my research work is in the real world, and that it is not just about the p-value statistically. I enjoyed the HKU 3MT® competition very much.”

To view Ms Meng Jiang’s presentation, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3WGEQQbu5A&feature=youtu.be

Jointly organised by the Graduate School and the Knowledge Exchange Office, HKU 3MT® Competition is an annual event which challenges RPg students to explain their research within three minutes to a general audience. This competition was initiated and launched by The University of Queensland, Australia, in 2008 and is now extended to over 170 universities worldwide. To learn more about the HKU 3MT® Competition, please visit: https://www.ke.hku.hk/hku3mt/index.php

Ms Meng Jiang (Middle) and her supervisors: (left) Professor Edward Lo and Professor May Wong.