How a mofussil girl became the champion of the Three-Minute Thesis competition

When Atia Amin first arrived at the University of Dhaka, she was a typical mofussil girl from Mymensingh. She found it challenging to communicate in English; she was always self-conscious about her accent and whether she made a grammatical error. That insecurity persisted to a large extent when she went for her Master's in the US. 

"When I got the job as a Teaching Assistant at the University of South Dakota, I found it extremely difficult to communicate with my native students. To make matters worse, it was the American MidWest. No one was particularly familiar with my ethnicity," said Atia. "Given my mofussil background, I had never really spoken in English before, let alone taken classes. So, it was a steep learning curve for me." 

In fact, she first participated in the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) not to win the competition, but simply to improve her communication skills.

Fast forward to 2022, Atia has won the global round of the 3MT, a competition that requires a simplified presentation of extremely complex ideas to the general populace, most of whom are native English speakers. In her journey to becoming the Champion of the 3MT, she not only overcame the language barrier but also beat graduate students from prominent Canadian, Mexican and US universities. She has also received a reward worth $ 2,000, or roughly Tk 2 lakh.

"The goal of the competition is to assess whether the researcher can explain complex research topics as easily as possible to ordinary people who have no idea about the issue, and that too in only three minutes," said Atia.

It did not happen by chance. Atia had to go through several stages of evaluation to be crowned as the champion of the competition. 

"I had to first qualify for the Eastern regional round (Canada was divided into three regions: Ontario, East and West) through a hit which eliminated all but 15 of the 250 participants. After that, I qualified for the National round where I had to compete against the top three competitors from the other three regions in Canada," she explained. "After winning the National round, I qualified for the global round where the national champions from the US and Mexico also presented their thesis."

Atia attended the Mymensingh Agricultural University's high school and college while growing up in Mymensingh. She completed her honours and master's degree in microbiology from the University of Dhaka and the University of South Dakota. She is currently pursuing her PhD in human genetics at McGill University in Canada. 

The award-winning thesis

Atia's award-winning thesis focused on how the Leishmania parasites (commonly known as Kala Jor in Bangladesh) develop drug resistance by sharing resistant genes through extracellular vesicles. The study also focused on finding potential remedies and ways of diagnosing the disease. Her thesis was later published in Cell Report, a Q1 journal and was selected among the top ten discoveries in Quebec from more than 22,000 publications.

"As a student of a North American university I could have picked any disease that is more endemic to the region. But I wanted to study Leishmania because there aren't many studies on this, and more importantly because the disease severely affects poor people in Bangladesh and other tropical regions," said Atia.

"We found a new way in which the parasites communicate with each other and share the drug resistance. More importantly, we found that these findings apply to certain cancer viruses as well," she added.

Overcoming the language barrier

Atia's road to prominence had not been easy. 

As she explained, "As a Bangla medium student, when I first tried to communicate in English, I first organised my thoughts in Bangla and then translated them into English. But doing so, in day-to-day conversation, especially with fast-speaking native students, was quite difficult." 

In fact, Atia identified this language barrier as the reason why many international students refrain from participating in international competitions like 3MT.

"During both my Master's and PhD, I noticed that most international students are afraid of participating in competitions like this, likely because of the language barrier and insecurities with their accent. We fear that other people will judge us for our accents and mistakes," she said.

However, Atia decided to tread against the current and decided to participate in the 3MT for the first time when she was pursuing her Master's at the University of South Dakota.

"I was struggling to communicate with my students properly. So I thought participating in 3MT will help me develop my communication skills," said Atia.

However, she did not find success immediately. Although she became runner-up in the regional rounds when she first participated, in the next one, she had been eliminated during the initial hits.

But her perseverance and determination to improve would eventually land her the much-coveted award.

"To be successful at 3MT, you have to be very careful about how you present your ideas, ranging from the slides you present, to how you speak, the content of your speech, how you present yourself and how efficient you are with your presentation. You have to hit the right balance between simplicity and complexity. And I learnt it all by participating in the 3MT," she added. 

Apart from the language barrier, Atia also shared her comparative experience as a female researcher in Bangladesh and North America.

"There is a huge difference in terms of opportunities as well as how you are treated as a female student. When I first started applying for my Master's, I faced a lot of obstacles. People, even those within my Department, asked me why I was doing so before I got married." 

Atia's family fully supported her in her pursuit of higher education in North America. However, most other girls in her acquaintance did not have similar good fortune. 

"I want to set an example for girls back at home that if they get the opportunity, they can also achieve great things in life."