The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Three Minute Thesis Contest took place on March 20th, 2026. Hannah Assour(Biological Sciences) won $1,000 from the Dietrich School to go towards research and travel and will go on to represent the school in the University-wide 3MT competition held by the Office of the Provost on April 6, 2026. A special thank you to our judges: Marta Lewicka (Mathematics), Pernille Roege (History), Tyler Bickford (English), Kamesha Spates (Africana Studies), Jennifer Laaser (Chemistry) and Carl Wang-Erickson (Mathematics). The Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Organization (GSO) also held Grad Expo on March 20, 2026. We are proud to announce this year’s Outstanding Presentation Award recipients: Jaya Shivangani Kashyap (Physics and Astronomy), Uthsara Malaweera Arachchi (Chemistry), Emily O’Brien (Psychology), Laya Shahzamani (Theatre Arts), Elsie Campbell (French & Italian), Ran An (Psychology). Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who helped make this day a success!
Congratulations Uthsara!
"My work in the Millstone Lab builds on a photocatalytic synthetic approach developed in collaboration with the Bernhard Group at Carnegie Mellon University, which provides precise temporal control over nanoparticle formation and growth, effectively using light as a 'throttle' for the reaction. Extending this control to a gold-palladium bimetallic system, we explore the impact of photon flux as a primary driver of nanostructural outcomes. Through this work, we aim to establish light as a powerful tool for the on-demand design of multimetallic nanomaterials."
-Uthsara Malaweera Arachchi
