Competitions

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Rice Business Plan Competition Success Stories

BioAesthetics 2016 ( Nicholas Pashos – Cohort 1)

D&P Bioinnovations 2016 ( Derek Dashti – Cohort 1)
Instapath 2018 (David Tulman – Cohort 2 & Peter Lawson – Cohort 3)

Tulane PhD student wins regional Three Minute Thesis competition
November 2018

Competing against forty other individuals representing graduate schools from across the US South, Samantha Kurtz, a Tulane bioinnovation PhD student, was selected by judges as the first place winner for her Three Minute Thesis presentation. The competition took place on February 16th in Knoxville, Tennessee at the annual meeting of the Council of Southern Graduate Schools and Kurtz advanced to the final round after progressing from a qualifying heat.

Kurtz's presentation, entitled "More Than Just a Pastie", was about her research on novel drug delivery systems to treat early stage breast cancer. Her PhD advisor is Microbiology and Immunology Assistant Professor Louise Lawson of the Tulane School of Medicine.

Following requirements set out by the organizers of this international competition, Kurtz had only three minutes and one static Power Point slide to share her research with a general audience.

Briana Mohan and Michael Cunningham of Tulane's Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies were both present to see Kurtz compete. In November, Kurtz won first prize at Tulane's university-wide Three Minute Thesis competition, therefore qualifying her to compete regionally.

Her award comes with a $1000 prize and Kurtz will share her presentation again at the national level this December at the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools in Nashville.