Sixth Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition

Event Date: March 4, 2022

Winners Finalists Judges Emcee Event Photos

Competition Winners

First Place: Emily Bowlus-Peck

Department: History

Advisor: James Bono

Biography: From Richmond, Virginia, Emily Bowlus-Peck is a member of the American Historical Association and Folger Shakespeare Library. In her research, she examines how new public “lunatic” hospitals in eighteenth-century London were largely influenced by the “incurable” diagnosis and how this diagnosis influenced the development of psychiatric care. Through her research, she hopes to understand how the incurable diagnosis ultimately influenced the development of hospital admittance and more importantly, the evolution of diagnosis for mental illness. Bowlus-Peck hobbies include traveling, video games, fantasy novels and playing with her dog. In her future plans, Bowlus-Peck hopes to be involved with professional development and career diversity education for historians.

Second Place: Hamed Khorasani

Department: Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

Advisor: Zhenduo Zhu

Biography: From Delijan, Iran, Hamed Khorasani is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and American Geophysical Union. In his research, he is developing a model to simulate the presence of wastewater effluent in US rivers and lakes. This model for the first time considers the temporal variations and the transfer processes within the rivers and lakes as the effluents move towards the downstream. He uses caffeine as an indicator for the presence of effluents, with hopes to find the hotspots of wastewater effluent contamination. Khorasani enjoys running, cycling, lifting and keeping fit. In the future, he would like to work in national labs as a large-scale modeling scientist.

Third Place: Danielle Lewis

Department: Educational Leadership and Policy

Advisor: Margaret W. Sallee

Biography: From Buffalo, New York, Danielle Lewis is an Educational Leadership and Policy PhD candidate and a member of the American Educational Research Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, and Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education. In her research, she examines the motivations, perceptions, and experiences of men faculty allies for undergraduate women in STEM and develops an understanding of allies to discover a new tool towards gender equity efforts. Through her research, she hopes to demonstrate that leveraging this group as a possible tool towards gender parity and possible effective measure in efforts to increase the number of women in STEM disciplines. Some of Lewis’ hobbies include spending time with family and friends, exercising and reading murder mystery novels. In the future, Lewis wants to pursue a faculty position or a research position within a policy institute, research center, education, non-profit or consulting organization.

People's Choice: Hannah Calkins

Department: Molecular Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics

Advisor: Pamela Hershberger

Biography: From Corning, New York, Hannah Calkins is a PhD candidate in the Roswell Park Graduate Division and a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Her research aims to find new ways to target treatment-resistant lung cancer, by identifying targetable mutations that the resistant cells have gained and using novel drugs to target and kill the cancer cells. The goal of her research is to identify novel treatment options and improve outcomes for lung cancer patients facing no other options. Calkins enjoys reading, watching reality TV and football and taking her dog to the park. In the future, she would like to work in translational research on clinical trials to help to bridge the gap between the research and the clinic.