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Federica Orabona is this year’s 3MT winner at ÅAU

Federica Orabona, a doctoral candidate in Chemical Engineering, won this year’s edition of the 3MT competition and will represent Åbo Akademi University in the Coimbra Group’s international 3MT semifinal, where three doctoral candidates will be selected to compete in the final held at the University of Granada in Spain in June.

Orabona spoke under the title “Beyond isocyanates: a greener and safer future for polyurethane foams.” Second place went to Patrick Kronberg, a doctoral candidate in Developmental Psychology, whose presentation was titled “Fight or Flee Academic Stress?”.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a competition that challenges doctoral candidates to present their research and its significance in just three minutes to a non-specialist audience. The presentation must include background, strategy, and results, and the only allowed visual aid is a single PowerPoint slide. A total of seven doctoral candidates participated in this year’s competition.

The jury in Turku, led by Professor Ronald Österbacka, praised the participants and highlighted the high quality and relevance of the research presented.

The live 3MT final will be held at the University of Granada on Thursday, 18 June 2026, as part of the Coimbra Group’s Annual Conference (16–19 June 2026). The final is expected to be one of the conference’s highlights, bringing together outstanding early-career researchers and celebrating a decade of meaningful scientific storytelling.

Read more about 3MT here.