Meet our 2022-23 3MT finalists: Rachel Sorensen

Rachel Sorensen is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at Iowa State in Toxicology. This is her second consecutive year as a Three Minute Thesis finalist. You can catch her presentation, "Break Me off a Piece of that Plas-tic Bar," during next week's final competition.

Rachel Sorensen

Q: What brought you to Iowa State?

A: I have always been interested in Toxicology. When I was looking at programs, I discovered that Iowa State has a great toxicology program. From the faculty to the classes, this program does a great job in ensuring that you will be prepared for your future career.

Q: Describe your research in three sentences or less.

A: I feed fruit flies microplastics and nanoplastics (small pieces of plastic) in order to see what may happen to humans as we continue to eat plastic.

Q: What do you hope to gain from Three Minute Thesis?

A: I am just happy to be able to share my results in a creative format. I am hoping that with my presentation that I can influence a new generation of presentation styles in a more narrative/ easy-to-understand format.

Q: Share a fun fact about yourself.

A: I have an almost 1-year old husky puppy who knows commands in both English and American Sign Language.

Founded at the University of Queensland, Three Minute Thesis (3MT) challenges graduate students to present their research to a non-specialist audience in three minutes or less. Iowa State's eight finalists will compete in our final competition on Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. You can watch a livestream of the event on the Graduate College's Facebook page.