NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Three University of Oklahoma graduate students have been named winners of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges participants to explain their research in three minutes to a non-specialist audience.
Tanner Cabaniss, a graduate student in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in the Gallogly College of Engineering, earned first place for his presentation, “Shape Memory Polymer Scaffolds with Tunable Architecture for the Endovascular Treatment of Cerebral Aneurysms.” His research examines how programmable polymer scaffolds could improve minimally invasive treatment options for cerebral aneurysms. As the first-place winner, Cabaniss will represent OU at the regional 3MT competition during the 82nd Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools annual meeting in Kansas City in March 2026.
Maggie Hart, a graduate student in the Department of English in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, was named runner-up for her presentation, “The Power of Medical Texts in Women’s Health.” Her work explores how medical writing shapes the understanding and treatment of women’s health.
The People’s Choice Award went to Surya Pratap Singh, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. His presentation, “Sweet Light: Using Sugar and Blue Light to Create Next-Generation Antibiotics,” focused on the use of photoactivated sugar compounds to develop new antimicrobial treatments.
The 3MT concept originated at the University of Queensland in 2008 and is now global with more than 900 universities participating worldwide. This was the ninth year in which the Graduate College at OU has hosted its own 3MT event.
Watch the full recording of the 2025 competition on the OU-Norman campus here.
More information about the competition is available through the OU Graduate College.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
In a rare achievement for an undergraduate student, Colby Higdon, a geology major on the paleontology track with the University of Oklahoma has published original paleontological research conducted at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History that reveals new insights into whether competition between ancient animals was responsible for their extinction.
Newly published research in Science Advances, led by Jessica Cerezo-Román, at the University of Oklahoma, documents the oldest known cremation in Africa and provides some of the earliest evidence for intentional cremation using a pyre in the world.
Three University of Oklahoma graduate students have been named winners of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges participants to explain their research in three minutes to a non-specialist audience.
