"Tesi en 4 minuts"

The idea of the contest is to defend the thesis in less than four minutes in an precise and easily understandable language, aimed at all publics. A committee of researchers and members of the Permanent Board of the Doctoral School selected ten finalists out of all the proposals presented. 

A jury, composed by members of this same committee, evaluated the presentations and awarded two prizes: a first prize of 800 €, and a second prize of 500 €. The public was asked to vote for the presentations they liked best, and the winner was awarded with 200 €.

The event was open to the general public, and was also broadcasted live on the university website. Around 30-50 people attended the event. 

The winners

Gabriela Montiel, PhD researcher at the Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, won the first prize, and will represent the UAB at the final of "Tesi en 4 minutes" of all Catalan universities.

The final, organized by the FCRI (Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació), will take place on June 6, 2018 at 5 pm at the Movistar Centre Barcelona. 

Gabriela, who is doing her PhD on bioplastics production by bacteria entitled "Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA): a bioplastic with a green agenda", also won the prize from the public, which was valued in 200 €. The second prize of the jury was for Mariona Pascual, PhD researcher on Education, for her work about the difficulties in writing in  primary and secondary students. 

Figure: The ten finalists with the members of the jury.  

The participants

The ten finalists of the contest at the UAB were: Laura Asquerino (Translation and Intercultural Studies), Laura Carreras (Advanced Immunology), Núria Folguera (Mathematics), Andrea Sunyol (English Philology), David Gutiérrez (Law),  Anne Sophie Hascoët (Food Science), Stéphane Nemours (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine), Soledad Roig (Materials Science), Gabriela Montiel (Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering) and Mariona Pascual (Education).