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The University of Mississippi

Pharmacy students win top honors at 3MT® competition

Posted on: February 10th, 2015 by enparson
Sujith

Sujith Ramachandran presents his three-minute thesis. He received the top prize at the competition.

Two University of Mississippi pharmacy administration students won top honors at this year’s campuswide Three Minute Thesis competition on Dec. 16.

Amod Athavale and Sujith Ramachandran won first place in the Ph.D. division and Grand Prize, respectively. Ramachandran will represent the University of Mississippi at the next level of competition this spring.

The Three Minute Thesis, or 3MT®, is a research-based communication competition that challenges master’s and doctoral students to present their thesis work in three minutes. They are permitted to use one PowerPoint slide to promote their research.

Ramachandran’s thesis, “Determining Physician and Patient Characteristics That Predict the Use of Atypical Antipsychotics in Children with Mental Health Disorders,” was a complex subject for the competition’s format.

“It was challenging for me to fit my thesis discussion in three minutes but still not sacrifice too much detail or make it too simplistic,” Ramachandran said. “On top of everything else, pediatric mental health is an incredibly sensitive issue on which there is a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding. I had to be very careful with the words I chose and even how I expressed myself.”

With the help of the School of Pharmacy’s faculty members and his thesis committee members, Ramachandran was able to turn his 75-page thesis into an effective presentation on pediatric mental health.

In the Ph.D. competition, Athavale tied for first place with history student Travis Jacquess.

Athavale presented his thesis on the “Development of a Structured Questionnaire to Measure Medication Adherence.” He worked diligently to condense his yearlong project into the 3MT® nonexpert level format.

Ramachandran said he feels great after his win and is proud that two of the top winners are pharmacy students.

“It shows the quality of the work we do in the (pharmacy administration) department and the amazing help we have from all our faculty members,” he said. “Seeing my whole department celebrate our victory was the most satisfying feeling I’ve had in this whole experience.”

Athavale congratulated his fellow classmate on the Grand Prize win.

“It feels great to see one of my best friends move on to the next round of the competition,” he said.

The Conference of Southern Graduate Schools competition will be held in New Orleans on March 8. For more information on the 3MT competition, visit https://gradschool.olemiss.edu/3mt-competition-rules/.