And the winner is…Meet this Year’s Three Minute Thesis winner and other top performers

By: Margaret Savoie

Drum roll please… this year’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) overall winner is Kendall Wontor, a doctoral chemistry student! Wontor’s research focuses on microplastics in oysters.

The 2022 UM 3MT Winner Kendall Wontor

Wontor spent most of her childhood in Texas but most recently lived in Hawaii before relocating to Mississippi. Her time in Hawaii sparked her interest in microplastics.

“I loved going to the beach,” said Wontor. “As a chemist, seeing all the plastics wash up on the shore made me curious about the breakdown pathway of plastics and the characteristics of microplastics in the environment.”

“Microplastics are a diverse suite of contaminants with different polymers, additives, sizes, and morphologies. Microplastics can also attract other pollutants, such as heavy metals, potentially introducing them into the food chain as the plastic is caught on gills or mistaken for prey,” explained Wontor’s advisor, Dr. James V. Cizdziel, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and coordinator of forensic chemistry.

Specifically, Wontor’s research uses analytical chemistry to answer questions about microplastics in the environment. Wontor has multiple current research projects in both Mississippi Gulf Coast oysters and the Mississippi River system. Some of the questions include: (1) how many microplastics are present, (2) what type of plastics are they made of, (3) what size and shape are they, and (4) can we find a potential source of some of these microplastics. Answers to these questions play an essential role in understanding the risk microplastics pose to both humans and the environment, as well as the ability to target clean-up efforts.

“Microplastics are abundant in the Mississippi River and Mississippi Sound. Oysters are exposed to these small plastic particles. This is a concern because oysters are filter-feeders and the microplastics may interfere with oyster biology. Oysters are a foundational species in the Gulf and an economic resource to the region,” explained Cizdziel.

“I would love to be able to continue my research on microplastics as a professor at the university level,” said Wontor. Such a position would not only allow her to continue learning and discovering but would also allow her to share her knowledge with the next generation of scientists.

Wontor is no stranger to presenting her research. She presented “Microplastics in Oysters from the Mississippi Sound” at the National Environmental Monitoring Conference in a special session on “Analyzing Microplastics in the Environment: Striving to Better Assess Occurrence, Fate and Effects.” She will represent UM this year at the regional competition in Tampa in March 2023.

The Graduate School is happy to also announce our 3MT® winners for specific categories. They are as follows:

People’s Choice

Emily Gravelee, 2022 People’s Choice Winner

This year’s People Choice Award Winner is Emily Gravlee, a pharmaceutical administration doctoral student from Prattville, Alabama.

Gravlee’s research centers on Naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, which was made available without a prescription at Mississippi pharmacies using a state standing order. However, just because Naloxone is lawfully available does not mean that patients necessarily have access to it. Local pharmacies may not stock the medication or may not be willing to dispense Naloxone under this standing order. Gravlee examined the effectiveness of Mississippi’s state standing order for Naloxone by conducting a secret shopper survey of Naloxone availability across all Mississippi community pharmacies. The team found that around 37% of all Mississippi pharmacies had Naloxone available under state standing order and that almost 1/5 of all Mississippi counties lacked a pharmacy where patients could get Naloxone. This research provides evidence that further work is needed to implement the Naloxone standing order in Mississippi effectively.

“In the future, I hope to continue to serve my community as an advocate for improved healthcare policy, implementation, and practice,” said Gravlee.

Tied for First Place Doctoral

Baharul Islam, Tied for first place Doctoral

Two students, both from Bangladesh, tied for first place in the Doctoral category of this year’s competition. They were Baharul Islam, a doctoral candidate in pharmaceutical sciences emphasizing medicinal chemistry, and Maisha Sadia, a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering.

Islam presented his research on the discovery of a new class of painkillers. Due to the growing severity of the opioid epidemic, Islam’s research seeks to discover new therapeutics for pain management without the addiction liability.

Maisha Sadia, Tied for first place doctoral

Sadia has utilized chaos theory, which focuses study on unique and unpredictable behavior in systems, to design circuits that are secure and can protect hardware from hackers. Each circuit can perform all the basic logic operations without causing any variation in the power consumption or speed of the device’s cooling fan.

“The future is unpredictable, just like chaos, and I’d like to stick with it to design even smaller circuits that take up less area but [are] able to perform more operations,” said Sadia. “It would be my dream to see my design fabricated into a chip someday.”

First Place Master’s

Sumeet Kulkarni, first place masters

Sumeet Kulkarni, secondary education master’s student from Pune, India, won first place in the Master’s division of this year’s 3MT® competition.

Kulkarni’s presentation explored the question of the best way for experts to communicate information about their field with the lay audience. His message was that communication which assumes that the general public has a deficit of knowledge–that the sole role of the expert is to fill in this gap–limits public engagement.

According to Kulkarni, “The correct way to communicate science is to shun discourse and encourage dialogue that lends the audience a voice as well and encourages an exchange of ideas.”

“I feel very excited and honored to win this competition [category] among a very talented field of finalists,” said Kulkarni.

Tied for Second Place Master’s

Mitchell Roberts, tied for second place masters

Mitchell Roberts, a philosophy master’s student from Florida, and Preethi Lakkala, a masters student in pharmaceutics from India tied for second place in the Master’s category in this year’s 3MT®.

Roberts presented his research, which is concerned with the philosophical question of how one can know whether technology can embody moral values independent of its use. For example, how do we know whether guns are “bad” or medicine is “good.” Roberts argues that to answer this question accurately, one should attend to how technology is normally used, but also attend to how it is abnormally used.

“I am interested in getting my Ph.D. beyond this and furthering my research on the philosophy of technology,” said Roberts, “I’m really interested in working with students and getting other people excited about questions they didn’t even know they had about the world.”

Preethi Lakkala, tied for second place masters

Lakkala’s research is on developing a hollow vaginal device using stereolithography 3D printing technology for treating recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis. The goal of the research is to create a drug-delivering device to deliver the drug to vaginal tissue for several days, avoiding the need for multiple drug administrations and reducing adverse effects associated with the drugs.

“My passion for creating innovative drug delivery systems to address the drawback associated with conventional drugs is what first sparked my interest,” said Lakkala.

In the future she hopes to be a formalization development scientist after the completion of a doctoral degree.

The Graduate School is proud of all the 3MT® participants in both the preliminary and final rounds. Thank you to everyone who has supported these students in their endeavors.

And the winner is…Meet this Year’s Three Minute Thesis winner and other top performers

2022 Winter Newsletter