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A graduate student in the Faculty of Medicine who is investigating light-sensitive proteins’ abilities to regulate heart arrhythmias has won the 2025 Three-Minute Thesis competition.

Ahmed Ramadan, a PhD student in Dr. Alex Quinn’s laboratory, won a total of $1500 in prize money on March 18 in the annual event, held at the Student Union building and live streamed on Dalhousie’s YouTube channel.

“It was really nerve-wracking, but even just making it to the finals and getting to showcase my research to the greater Dalhousie community was a great privilege,” Ramadan said in an interview after he won.

His goal in entering the competition was to raise the profile of his research project and educate more people about the dangers of heart arrhythmia, said Ramadan, who is in his fifth year of his PhD studies.

“I’m glad there’s a lot of recognition now for arrhythmia research at Dalhousie and hopefully it fosters more great collaborations,” he says. “I’m hoping it’s going to lead to better arrhythmia treatments in the future.”

Twelve finalists from earlier heats participated in the final competition. Participants had to boil their complex research projects down to three-minute presentations, using only one slide to illustrate it.

Dalhousie Chancellor Dr. Rustum Southwell, Kristan Hynes, Senior Vice-President, Corporate and Public Affairs at National Public Relations, and Dr. Graham Gagnon, Dalhousie’s Associate Vice-President Research, judged the competition. They evaluated the graduate students on their ability to communicate their ideas in clear, engaging presentation free of jargon or academic terminology.

Ramadan was the judges’ pick as well as that of the audience, who also voted him the winner of the People’s Choice Award.

Vivid analogy

In his talk, Ramadan compared arrhythmias that disrupt the normal electrical signalling pattern of the heart to people in a crowd who jump prematurely because they can’t grasp the mechanics of how to stand and perform “the wave” at sporting events.

“It’s complete chaos, and it ruins the wave and everyone just sits down,” he said.

“This is akin to what we call an arrhythmia …when a wave of the heart is disrupted by a premature electrical signal, throwing the heart completely out of rhythm so the heart muscle fails to coordinate, and the heart may cease to beat and result in complete, sudden death.”

The vivid analogy won over the judges, as did Ramadan’s description of his success in identifying a protein that can transform light into an electrical signal to suppress heart arrhythmias.

“It’s really just like flashing a light at a premature jumper in the crowd,” he said, citing the protein’s ability to use light to guide the heart’s electrical waves.

Other Faculty of Medicine finalists included Alexa Wilson, a PhD student in microbiology and immunology, Joshua Ojile, a master’s student in medical neuroscience, and Cédric Blais, a PhD student in biochemistry and molecular biology. Each of the finalists received $100 for participating.

Participants’ topics ranged from reducing fractures in older adults to using honeybees to monitor environmental health.

Dr. Kim Brooks, Dalhousie’s President, praised all the students who competed in the final and the earlier heats.

“We have 3800 graduate students here at Dalhousie and you are the 12 we are hearing from tonight. You are all brilliant and perfect already,” she told the participants.

Dr. Marty Leonard, Dean of Graduate Studies, introduced the graduate students and noted the hard work that goes into preparing for the competition.

“The Three-Minute Thesis is probably one of my most favourite Dal events of the year,” she said, citing the presentations’ positive, upbeat, and interesting content.

“In these times where we’re all feeling a little bit unsettled, it actually brings me joy.”

The University of Queensland in Australia developed the 3MT competition in 2008, and the competition has since spread to more than 600 universities in 85 countries.

Ramadan will now advance to the Eastern regional competition, held at Memorial University in St. John’s on June 4, 2025.

This is the second year in a row that a Faculty of Medicine graduate student has won the Three-Minute Thesis Competition. Last year’s winner was Reynaldo Popoli, a PhD student in medical neuroscience, who described his research about improving the quality of life for people living with ALS.