Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

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Students of the University of Notre Dame are doing important research in a wide variety of fields.

Recently, graduate students competed in the 3MT competition, where students had three minutes to convey the essence of their research to many outside of their fields of study.

We'll dive deeper into the competition, with this year's winners coming up on economic outlook.

Notre Dame recently hosted the 2024 Shaheen 3MT competition on campus, where graduate students from a wide variety of fields had an opportunity to convey the essence of their research and findings to people outside their field.

Each student had three minutes to frame the research and its findings, and convey why it mattered to a panel of judges and a large audience of students, faculty, and the community.

We're sitting down with the winners and organizers today to hear more about the competition.

Joining me for that conversation are Mary Ann McDowell, the associate dean for professional development at the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame.

Henry Downes, a PhD student in economics at the University of Notre Dame and first place winner of the 3MT competition, and Josephine Lechartre, a PhD student in peace studies and political science at the University of Notre Dame and a second place winner in the 3MT competition.

Welcome.

That was a mouthful, guys.

Thank you for coming and being here today.

We really appreciate it.

Had a chance to be a part of it.

Got to see you both.

do your presentation.

You did a phenomenal job.

So excited to have you here today to talk a little bit more about it just for framing of of for our viewers.

Mary Ann, let me come to your way.

And maybe just a quick introduction, sort of who you are and what you do at the university.

Sure, sure.

I'm the associate dean for professional development in the grad school, as you said, and my role is to promote professional development among our graduate students.

And part of that is running the 3MT competition, as well as providing a variety of services grant writing, consultation, writing work, and other opportunities.

I'm also a professor of biological sciences, and so I work on infectious diseases and I'm part of the Institute for Global Health.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Good to have you here.

So, Henry, I'll give you a quick introduction.

Student in economics.

But give us tell us a little bit more about Henry.

So I'm a fifth year student.

So getting close to the end now.

but I'm originally from the Hartford, Connecticut area.

I did my undergrad at the University of Alabama.

worked some odd jobs for a while.

Came back to school here in 2019, and, I work mostly in, economic history, but I also have some work in housing and more contemporaneous policy settings.

Great.

We're good.

I'm glad to have you here.

So just fine.

How about you?

So tell us a little about yourself.

Yeah.

so I'm a recent PhD, actually just defended my dissertation, in studies in political science, and I am from France originally, where I did my undergrad and came here for the PhD at Notre Dame.

And I'm mostly a scholar of political violence.

So trying to understand how experiences of violence actually affect the political engagement of survivors.

And I'm also interested in solving things.

So in conflict resolution and peacebuilding as well.

Great, good.

Well, a terrific panel.

So we'll talk a little bit more about Mary Ann let me come back your way.

So maybe talk more before we get into more talk more globally about just research at Notre Dame.

It feels like in recent years there's a lot more attention to research that's happening on campus and different things students are doing.

Could you just give us a a snapshot of some of the stuff, your work or some of that work?

Right.

So certainly since I've been at the university since 2001 and we've increased our, grant revenue substantially since that time, which supports, research across the institution, a lot of that in science and engineering.

But that, includes social sciences and humanities as well.

at Notre Dame, the bulk of the research actually is conducted by graduate students, as opposed to some universities, like maybe medical schools, where there would be postdoctoral fellows that are in the workforce.

so we benefit greatly from that.

so they learn how to do research, whatever their field is.

But mostly it's to critically think, and so they may not go and become a professor somewhere, but they go into all sorts of fields and it just gives them, a real ability to evaluate literature data, and make, decisions that are informed.

Henry.

Them can be very technical about your journey and coming here.

What was it about, the University of Notre Dame that attracted you to come here and do your, do your graduate studies?

Yeah.

So I before coming back to school, I had worked some in the nonprofit world, so I'd work for an affordable housing nonprofit, and I'd worked for Medicaid in Tennessee.

and so I was really interested in kind of working in policy settings where you could really try to help disadvantaged communities.

but I didn't feel like I had the skills always to make the kind of difference that I wanted to make.

And so, I was really drawn by Notre Dame's emphasis on research, especially in our department and economics, which is what I can speak to the most of research that's kind of for the common good.

there's, the lab for Economic Opportunities is housed within Notre Dame's econ department, and that that had a ton of opportunities for graduate students to get involved in cutting edge research that was directly in conjunction with community partners that were making a difference for folks.

And so it was kind of just econ with a conscience, in a way.

And so that was, if the fit felt really good.

And when I came and visited, it was just a great culture here at Notre Dame.

So I've, I've really enjoyed it here.

Great.

And just feeling similar questions.

So tell us about your journey that brought you here to Notre Dame to do research.

Yeah.

I came here after working in Columbia.

I worked on, I worked in an advocacy organization that helped victims of the armed conflict in Columbia that has, gone through a 70 year civil war that recently came to an end.

And so I was helping the victims, claim their rights after after the end of the armed conflict.

And as I was doing this work there, I stumbled upon the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies here at Notre Dame, which is one of the institutions that is ensuring that the peace agreement is being implemented properly in Colombia.

And I was really seduced by the idea of coming to the United States and, doing that work for peace and justice.

And as Henry was saying, work for good in the community.

And so getting engaged on the project that the university has to, monitor the implementation of peace, but also help victims of the armed conflict and, also the strong, emphasis at Notre Dame on Latin American studies at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and in general, just this, this vibrant community engagement that they're trying to promote.

Okay.

We're glad to have you both here.

So thank you.

And we'll get into a little bit more of your research in a second.

Mary Ann let me come back your way.

So, so so we teased a little bit about 3MT, but those watching don't know what that was.

I didn't honestly know what it was until I had a chance to be involved this year.

Give us a, tell us a little bit more about that.

Sure it is.

It stands for three minute thesis competition.

That started in the University of Queensland, in 2008 and quickly spread.

It's now being run in over 600 universities, across, I don't know, 65 different countries.

And the goal of it is for researchers to be able to describe, make their research accessible, maintaining the the importance of it, but making it accessible for the broad, community, which I think the, the pandemic certainly, highlighted that, researchers sometimes have a problem doing that.

So we really promote that in, our education policy, to help students articulate their work, you know, to their crazy uncle at Christmas or, or someone in the grocery store line, to just, so people can understand the relevance and so speak a little bit to just, maybe ahead of this year, just the last, what, 7 or 8 years?

I think you've you've been doing that.

What what was the experience like some of your winners or anything you can share about just sort of the competition before this year?

It's always just amazing the diversity.

And, I learn a lot every time.

a lot of times we do have science and engineering people win, and partially that's the structure that we have.

It set up the preliminary rounds.

it's partly the structure of the university.

so I think that'll be changing in the future.

the winner.

So we have three winners, first place and second place, and then the People's choice, the winner goes on to a regional competition, which Henry had the, opportunity to participate in.

and so it's fantastic.

And we'd love the community to come out next year.

You know, I think what amazed me a little bit, just the range of fields is history.

It's economics, it's biochemistry, it's chemistry.

It's, a lot of different, things and many topics are above my, understanding level.

And so I love the topic of sort of how do you make this, make it make this understandable.

So.

So Henry let me come your way.

So, so let's let's talk first, maybe more specifically about your your research before we talk about your experience sort of in the competition a little bit.

But so tell us about, the, the research that you were doing that you presented on at the competition.

Yeah.

So, I mentioned I came to Notre Dame because I was really interested in kind of contemporary policy context.

And then I became, also interested in economic history, which is most of what I spend my time on now.

And so, at in the econ department, we take field courses.

one of those courses that I took was in economic demography.

And so we learned a lot about, the economic determinants of why people get married, have kids or why they don't.

And one of the things that I became really interested in was this really important, sort of pivotal social cultural phenomenon in the 20th century in the US and also in other countries, which was the baby boom, and the fact that economists and other social scientists just frankly didn't have, consensus on what caused it.

And so I started I have a somewhat history background.

And so I was thinking about this other things that were going on during that time.

And I think the story that most people have in their heads about the baby boom is, World War II ended, soldiers came home, they got married, got a house with the GI Bill, started filling it up with lots of kids.

and that for sure happened to an extent.

my grandparents had a story kind of like that, but actually the birth rates were increasing about 10 to 15 years before the end of World War II, which is, has been noted, but it hasn't sort of been no one's sort of close the loop on what was causing that.

And so, where I came in is I have basically a new hypothesis that I introduced, which has to do with the rise of labor movement in the US.

And so the first thing you should ask is like, well, what exactly do labor unions have to do with fertility?

but really it's it's about labor unions to an extent, but really it's about economic precariousness.

So the to the extent that labor unions were effective in reducing economic precariousness for folks in this period through higher wages, through better job security, through pension plans, health insurance, other fringe benefits.

These are really important factors for folks in this period.

And if you think about the decision to get married, buy a house, have kids, a lot of that is going to be downstream of just your level of economic security.

And so my work is really just putting together these two literatures, one that says that, you know, unions are doing certain things, and then one that says that these are the determinants of fertility.

And then, trying to see how much of the baby boom can be explained by this, the rise of the movement.

Okay.

I love the title.

Did Organized Labor Induce labor was very catchy there.

So yeah, I've got two little ones at home, so maybe, I borrowed from some of the jargon that I was hearing as they were prepping for deliveries and things like that.

I love it, it caught my attention.

So.

Yeah, guys, we're gonna leave the studio real quick.

We're going out into the field.

George Lepeniotis we sent him to campus to do some additional research for us over there.

George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm here on the University of Notre Dame's campus, and I'm joined by a PhD candidate, Amandhi Mathews.

Amandhi thank you for being with us.

Of course.

Amandhi you have a special relationship with my co-host, Jeff Rea, but we'll get there in a right before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about your journey and what brought you here.

You originally from Sri Lanka and you came to United States to get an education.

You started off at, in Texas, is that right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And what was your undergraduate in?

So I did my bachelor's in biology at the University of Dallas.

it's a very small liberal arts school.

had a wonderful time there.

I wanted to stay in research, and I applied to graduate school right after, and then I came back to nerdy.

That's awesome.

So you are in the process of your PhD?

they call that a doctorate, right?

And you're in your third year.

Yes.

All right.

And you are doing as part of that program, you have to do some research and you've chosen a real specific topic, haven't you?

What is it that you're focusing on?

So I'm very interested in understanding how neurons form sensory circuits very early in development.

So a lot of my work is basic biology, but it really is the foundation of the kind of work that helps you build therapies against things like neurodevelopmental disorders, that originate later in life.

Right.

so I look at how these sensory neurons kind of navigate all the way to the spinal cord and make these circuits that help you to sense and like, take stimuli from your environment, which is a really important process for survival.

Is it fair to say that the human nervous system is still somewhat misunderstood?

Yeah.

And that injuries or disease can cause real major concerns.

So your hope is to go all the way back to the beginning, right.

to understand how it's formed.

Right.

Because understanding the the molecules and the genetic paradigms that are important for the proper formation of the nervous system is really the blueprint of the nervous system.

Right?

So in order to you, for us to construct a building, we need to know how the blueprint is.

and that's kind of primarily what my lab does in the kind of work that I do.

And we didn't come with a blueprint, unfortunately, by the way.

All right.

So you are in the process of recreating or helping to recreate the blueprint of our of our nervous system.

Now, recently, you took part in the competition, right.

And tell me a little bit about that competition.

What was it, what was it called?

it was called three minute pieces competition.

And essentially you present, your work in three minutes to a very general audience.

and like, you know, a lot of people think that it's easy to talk about your science, if you're given a short time, but it's actually harder because you have to kind of focus in on the most important aspects and tell people why it matters.

and then you have to kind of cut out all the scientific jargon.

Right?

but it was really fun kind of curating my three minute talk and then being able to talk to this really big audience and have all my friends and colleagues there, and compete together with other people from different departments and hear about their stories.

And that was here at the university.

Yes.

And I hear you did very well.

Yes, I did win the People's Choice Award.

so it was truly, I guess, exciting.

And it was just nice to have all my people there.

So do you feel like was the more difficult part condensing the science or making it digestible for those of us that have no real clue what you're talking about?

I think a little bit of both.

I think the part that I really enjoyed was kind of that curation process.

Right?

Like, how do I tell a story that's scientifically accurate and representative of the work that I do, but at the same time very accessible.

And I think, like, it kind of hones a muscle that as scientists, we don't always do.

so really thankful to geneticist and honestly, I guess I enjoyed both parts of that.

Right.

And as I said, my co-host Jeff was one of the judges.

Right.

And, he actually sent me out here to talk to you because he said you were amazing and a great story.

And it was a real refreshing, presentation that you put on, as you look to the future now and, you know, I say that the three minute thesis is a great competition because it is oftentimes we find ourselves doing what I call the elevator pitch, right where we are telling people what we do quickly.

But yet those small conversations can often lead to larger connections, opportunities for growth.

So but looking to your future, where do you see yourself going?

so I really love the work that I'm doing.

and I think at my center and really committed to service.

So I want to give back to the community the science that I do.

and part of that also is mentorship.

Like, I really enjoy being able to kind of talk to the next generation of scientists and like, be a part of that training.

So I think, like kind of centering on what I care about.

I see myself going into academia and being a faculty member.

but I do see also myself, like staying in research, and continue to work in neuroscience, using zebrafish, which is the animal model that I use for my work, in the progress of my work.

So, yeah, we mentioned you mentioned that before going on air, that the zebrafish is very closely related to our anatomy.

Right?

Yeah.

We share like 70% of genetic homology, which is like simultaneous with zebrafish.

So it makes it a really wonderful, model organism.

Study things like neurodevelopment.

And that's awesome.

Well, I'm glad you found a place here at Notre Dame.

And I'm glad that, we got to know you.

And thank you for telling us a little bit more about your stuff.

Yeah.

Of course.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

I'm.

I'm sure you knew already, but it's great to see that zebrafish are helping us build a blueprint to the human body.

George.

Thanks.

So appreciate that.

Good.

Look at what's going on on campus.

And again, some great research for one of our other award winners.

So Josephine, let me come back to you.

And so as we were right for a break, we were talking to Henry a little bit about his research.

And so I got to in the session here lot about yours, but help our audience understand a little bit about the research you're doing on campus.

so I am interested in general in how being exposed to violence affects people willingness to engage in politics.

So do people who experience violence vote more or less engaging in protest, engaging in civic associations, etc..

So how do people really react to political violence and how does this impact their political engagement in the aftermath?

And the research I presented at the 3MT competition had to do with refugees.

So I talked about how refugees experience of violence and then their lives.

They live in refugee camps, affect their long term political engagements.

And something that I thought was interesting is that I found that whenever the refugees had more input into designing policies for the administration of refugee camps, they became more engaged as well.

They became more engaged citizens.

And I believe this has really important implications, because a lot of refugees are, in refugee camps for a very long time, and the refugee crisis is only continuing globally.

And as they withdraw from those refugee camps, as they resettle somewhere else, they, actually undertake more, civic engagement when they have had this experience, of participation in refugee camps than when they have not.

And so this is really important to know what kind of citizens the refugees are going to be, in the long term, as we're thinking about whether they're going to be returning home or settling somewhere else, like the U.S, for instance.

Great.

So some phenomenal, topics there, and I appreciate it.

So so let's talk for a second.

just about what's next.

So so just final state.

We'll stay with you for a second.

So you so you have been doing this research or finishing your studies?

what do you want to do next or what?

What are you thinking about?

yeah.

so some exciting news for me.

I'm going to be moving to New Orleans this summer.

I will be a postdoctoral researcher at Tulane, where I will keep working on this, refugee work.

Yes.

Very good.

And how about you?

Yeah.

So I have one more year here.

Okay.

and then they're going to be, I'll be on the job market, and so I'll be applying broadly, but, hoping to get a job as an academic economist somewhere.

Great.

Sounds good.

Henry.

Me?

Come back your way.

So let's talk competition in particular because because both of you are doing sort of a lot of research and you sort of got to boil this down into something very distinct, and you've got to be able to connect with an audience like me who isn't quite as smart and doesn't understand all these just just walk us through that process of how you, how you're kind of trying to get your arms around the most important things and then convey that to, to an audience.

Yeah, it's it's really something that we as academics, I think, don't practice as much as we should.

And and it's not something that most folks are, intuitively have a grasp for how to do it.

And so because usually, like if we have a paper, we'll write an abstract or an intro.

And that's concise usually, but it can have a lot of jargon and it might not be accessible.

And so I think you have to start from an empathetic perspective, kind of like you're teaching like if you're teaching undergrads, they're all smart, but they might not know the exact topic that you're about to lecture them on.

As much as, you know, you think.

Right.

So, so I think part of being a good teacher, too, is about having that empathy and thinking about what are the parts that I need to give them to make sure that they get interested and excited and, and the hook, how to how you know they're going to want to learn if I can get them hooked on this topic.

And so I think you can kind of channel that inner teacher mindset and that can help a lot.

I love it.

And we'll, we'll, we'll ask you to build upon that a little bit, because you too have sort of a pretty complicated topic that you have to, to narrow down and, and have a, an uninformed audience.

not uninformed, but maybe not not as knowledgeable about the topic.

tucked into that mindset, I think the, the difficulties to make it accessible without simplifying too much because you don't want to lose the substance or make sure that, you know, people get the the important stuff of your research.

But more than that, I also think we have a duty as academics to make our research accessible.

Part of our research is funded through public money.

So I think it's important personally that, the people who contribute to that research, who their taxpaying money or, or participate as research participants, get something back and actually understand what we're doing, at universities behind the walls of, of Notre Dame that actually benefits the greater public.

And in fact, something I like to say to my family said, everything in our lives is research.

It's based on research, the TV we're on, the the chairs we're sitting on everything.

At some point was research.

So this is really important for us to convey that so that people know what we're doing, but also why it's important that we do the type of research to improve everyone's lives.

Henry, some people are more comfortable than others in front of an audience, sort of articulating different things.

You sort of need to do both, right?

Because you could be sort of the the best writer in the world, but also, so to speak, a little bit to, to that need to kind of have the communication skill in addition to the writing, research, thinking brain there.

Yeah, I think it's just a lot of practice.

I think probably there are some folks that are naturally, more inclined than others.

But at the end of the day, some of the best talks that I've seen in academics settings are, again, they're they're actually quite accessible and they're by people that just practice a lot.

And I think, that's as people get more experience, you know, you'd think maybe they don't practice as much.

Right.

But it actually, I, I think it's the case that the people just really need, to keep working on, their delivery.

There's so many little nuances of connecting with a large audience, that are quite different from an academic talk.

And so, I think all of the contestants in the 3MT competition, did a really good job with, with practicing a lot and then and then doing it on the big stage.

Yeah.

You know, as interesting as the clock is, is ticking down and your head is going through, I still got to get information done.

Talk about the pressure of sort of, of, of staying on task, getting that information out.

But the clock ticking at the same.

Well, I must say, that's probably one of the most stressful things I've done.

being on stage in front of an audience, having this pressure of the clock.

So, as Henry said, it was heavy preparation.

I even went to the room of the competition beforehand to, you know, be on stage and do my speech and make sure, things worked and not try not to move too much on stage.

And, so I would say practice, practice, practice.

And I've had professors tell me that they've been teaching for 30 years, and any time they teach a new class or they in front of a new class room, or they're in one of the settings where they have to present, they get a little nervous.

So I think if anything, this is teaching us how to master and channel that fear towards something productive.

Yeah.

Very nice.

Mary Ann coming your way in our last couple minutes here.

So just talk about the advice to students as they're thinking about this.

So you have this job of sort of, recruiting students to get involved in this in the first place, but also then helping advise them as they're thinking about how this comes together.

Talk a little bit about what you might tell them.

Well, practice, practice, practice and get feedback.

and certainly this is a group effort.

It's not just me.

There are units across campus that help in particular, grad career services, I think, met with everybody individually, tell them the rules and, and critique, their presentations as well as they have an opportunity to be taped and see themselves, which is, horrific.

I will not watch this episode right.

and and a lot of the advice is to not use jargon.

It's really easy.

Like my daughter, she'll ask me, definition of something, and then she'll get really mad.

Mom, you explained it with words I don't understand.

So it's hard for academics to sometimes remember that.

Yeah.

If people wanted to find out more information about the competition, any advice?

Where would you send them?

To the you could just Google Notre Dame, 3MT and it'll come up.

it's called the Shaheen 3MT competition because the Shaheen family has endowed it so that we can keep and offer nice prizes and send the first place winner to compete regionally.

That's great.

I encourage you to our our viewers to go the videos from each of this year's presentations throughout the series.

You guys, thank you for joining us.

Really appreciate the conversation.

Congratulations and good luck on your next chapters there.

That's it for our show today.

On behalf of the entire team here at PBS Michiana Wnit, thank you for watching or listening to our podcast.

To watch this episode again or any of our past episodes, you can find Economic Outlook at wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

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Thank you.