AUT’s 2026 Three Minute Thesis finals were held on Thursday 3 September as part of AUT Wiki Rangahau | Research Week.
Video presentations from seven doctoral finalists were screened to a live audience and online viewers via livestream. The finalists’ task was a tough one: distil years of doctoral research into just three minutes – and with just one slide – to tell a single, compelling story.
The finalists were:
- Atefeh Enayatollahi
- Bregas Prayuko
- Hansini Gunasekara
- Jude Alao
- Marianne Carroll
- Megha Baburaj Sijarani
- Nisha Suresh
We’re delighted to announce the AUT 2026 3MT winners!
And the winner is…
Megha Baburaj Sijarani! Megha is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences. She was crowned the 2026 AUT 3MT champion for her presentation entitled “Developing Vitamin B12 Conjugates for Antibiotic Therapy.” Megha’s presentation won over the judges with its excellent opening and conclusion and strong narrative structure throughout. They noted that she made very effective use of metaphor (circumventing antibiotic resistance by using Vitamin B12 as a ‘Trojan horse’) to make the complex research clear without wasting too many words on explanation. This allowed Megha to cover a lot of ground very efficiently. She also emphasised the social impact of the research in a convincing way.
Nisha Suresh, also from the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, was named Runner-Up for her presentation “Sleep Begins Before Bedtime,” on the effects of Yoga Nidra on the nervous system and sleep. This is Nisha’s second appearance in the AUT 3MT finals, having won the Audience Vote in 2025 – a fantastic result two years running. The judges praised Nisha’s very natural and engaging presentation style. She gave clear explanations of the research questions and methods, and addressed her study’s limitations appropriately – all in terms very well-matched to the level of the non-specialist. Congratulations Nisha!
Bregas Prayuko, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, took out the Audience Vote award for his presentation “The City as An Ensemble: Bandung Creative Identity And Spaces.” Bregas’ presentation impressed the crowd at the finals with its visually compelling slide and memorable analogy of collective creativity as a city playing the anklung.- well done Bregas!
A huge congratulations to Megha, Nisha, and Bregas, and to their fellow finalists Atefeh, Hansini, Jude, and Marianne, for their skill and confidence as research communicators. The judges praised all of this year’s finalists for their clarity, their enthusiasm, and their ability to make complex research accessible to a non-specialist audience.
If you missed the finals, you can watch the full recording online, or find out more about this year’s competition – including all the finalists and judges – on the AUT 3MT page.
Congratulations again to all the competitors!
