Jade Newsome took first place in last week's first-ever Three Minute Thesis competition final at the University of Arkansas with her presentation Dissecting Salt Tolerance in Soybean by Profiling Differential Physiological Responses and Gene Expression.

Newsome is a master's student in plant pathology in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. She is advised by Kenneth Korth.

Newsome was awarded $500 and an expenses-paid trip to compete in the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools regional Three Minute Thesis contest.

Members of the audience voted for Richard Perry as the People's Choice winner. Perry, a doctoral student in kinesiology, won $250 for his presentation Having a Big Heart: It's Only a Matter of Time and Calories. He is advised by Tyrone Washington.

"I was thoroughly impressed with each of the participating students," said Kim Needy, dean of the Graduate School and International Education. "The task they had was not an easy one, but they all did an outstanding job. The quality of their presentations speaks volumes about the quality of graduate students at the University of Arkansas."

Six contestants participated in the final. Each of the participants won a competition held in their respective academic colleges, in order to qualify for the university-wide event.

The academic contest challenges graduate students to summarize their thesis or dissertation research within three minutes to a general audience. The presenters were judged on their ability to help audience members understand their research and their ability to engage the audience.

The Three Minute Thesis was founded by the University of Queensland in 2008.