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CAHNRS 3MT Competition

CAHNRS Three Minute Thesis

  • Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
  • Location: Ensminger Pavilion
  • Time: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m
Register Here!

Judges

  • Season Hoard – Scholarly Associate Professor, DGS
  • Lindsay Hickman – CAHNRS IT
  • Jacob Moya – CAHNRS Communications
  • Judy Hopkins – CAHNRS Internship and Development Coordinator
  • Eric Jessup – Research Professor, School of Economic Sciences

Contact

CAHNRS Eligibility

  • PhD students pursuing a degree within CAHNRS. PhD students must be in good standing with CAHNRS.
  • Master’s level students pursuing degrees within CAHNRS. Master’s level thesis students should be in their third semester or later. Non-thesis students are not eligible. Master’s students are not eligible for the university-wide competition.
  • CAHNRS will host the competition on a single day with separate judging for PhD candidates and master’s level students.
  • Entrants located on the Pullman campus must present face-to-face.
  • Entrants located on branch campuses or at R&E centers are allowed to attend via zoom. If a student off campus wins the CAHNRS 3MT competition, they must travel to Pullman to take part in the university-wide competition on March 25, 2026.

First Place Winners will receive a $1,000 Scholarship!

Proposal Process

Proposals must be submitted to the CAHNRS 3MT Committee via (cahnrs.majors@wsu.edu). The deadline for proposals is Friday, February 27th. Proposals must follow a specific format:

  • Register online
  • Slide that will be used during the CAHNRS 3MT competition. Only one slide is permitted in the competition.
  • Photograph (head shot) to be displayed on CAHNRS 3MT competition website.

The CAHNRS 3MT Committee will determine which proposals move forward to the formal CAHNRS competition. The winner of the CAHNRS competition will move on to the university-wide competition on March 26, 2025.

Visit the official 3MT website for additional resources.

2026 Presentations

Winners

Master’s Level

  • First Place: Lauren Stubbs
  • First Place: Molly Quade
  • People’s Choice: Gabrielle Berger

PhD Level

  • First Place: Oluwatunmise Dada
  • Runner Up: Taydin Macon
  • People’s Choice: Paulina Echeverria-Paredes

Gabrielle Berger

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: From Illness to Impact: Measuring the Burden of Early Calf Disease

Michelle Delgado

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Through the Fields They Fly: Mites Carrying Viruses

Molly Quade

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: The Future is Fungal: Finding Fungi to Save the Bees

Lauren Stubbs

  • Department: Crop and Soil Sciences
  • Presentation Title: The Power of Peaola: Two Crops, Boundless Potential

Nipun Thennakoon

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: AWN CropAI: Real-Time Fruit and Canopy Intelligence on Your Smart Phone

Chase Baerlocher

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Some Team-Ups are Just Better

Janae Becher

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Pollinator Nutritional Landscape: Bees and Canola

Hector Botello

  • Department: School of Economic Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Vaccination status and Labor Market Participation: Evidence during Peru’s Covid 19 pandemic

Jeremy Boutin

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Unlocking the Determininants of Terpene Biodiversity…using Labubus?

Oluwatunmise Dada

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Turning Rotten-Egg Gas into Sustainable Fertilizer

Paulina Echeverria-Paredes

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Enabling Sustainable Aviation Fuel Scale-Up: An Integrated Approach

Mckaela Hobday

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation: Understanding European foulbrood disease epidemiology in honey bees

Sharmeen Islam

  • Department: Animal Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Two Doors: How Obesity Impairs Muscle Repair

Gagandeep Kaur

  • Department: Crop and Soil Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Can Wheat Replace Daily Supplements?

Taydin Macon

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Environmental DNA as a Diagnostic Tool for Honey Bee Overwintering Facilities

Lochana Marasingha

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Stop the Rot, Stop the Spread: Finding Rot in Potato Storage Facilities

Swapnika Medikonda

  • Department: School of Food Science
  • Presentation Title: Mitigating Food Safety Risks during Post Harvest Production of Cherries

Sahil Nain

  • Department: School of Food Science
  • Presentation Title: Feeding the 10 Billion by 2050

2025 Presentations

Winners:

Master’s Level:

  • First Place: Molly Quade
  • Second Place: S M Hasan Shahriar Rahat
  • People’s Choice: S M Hasan Shahriar Rahat

PhD Level

  • First Place: Camille Wagstaff and Yuan Su
  • Second Place: Valentina Sierra Jimenez and Tana Rayburn
  • People’s Choice: Bhupinderjeet Singh

Divyanth Loganathan Girija

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Robot Labor for Tissue Sampling from Tubers

Molly Quade

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Finding a Fungus that will Save Honeybees

Katherine Rehberger

  • Department: Food Science
  • Presentation Title: Stretching the Limits: Modifying Mozzarella for a “Grater” Future

Joey Rosario

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: A Comparative Analysis of Ozone, Peracetic Acid, or Chlorine Dioxide as Disinfectants for Stored Bee Hive Sanitation

S M Hasan Shahriar Rahat

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Growth Optimization of Algae Chlorella Vulgaris CA1 in AD Wastewater

Chase Baerlocher

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Managing Mutualists: When to Cut Off Unproductive Partners

Dattatray Bhalekar

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Environmentally Responsible Crop Protection

Thiago Campbell

  • Department: Horticulture
  • Presentation Title: Managing Biennial Bearing During “On” and “Off” Years in Apples

Madeline Desjardins

  • Department: Soil Science
  • Presentation Title: Super Poop: Closing the Loop for Soil Health

Madeline Fodor

  • Department: HD Prevention Science
  • Presentation Title: Protective Factors and Mental Health Outcomes Among Transgender Adolescents in Washington State

MD Nasmul Hossain

  • Department: Animal Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Enhanced Fibrogenesis in Children from Obese Mothers Underlying Reasons & Therapeutic Prevention

Se Eun Jung

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Surviving Drought by Advancing Plant Water Transportation

Gagandeep Kaur

  • Department: Soil Science
  • Presentation Title: Do You Need Just Food or Healthy Food

Itsuhiro Ko

  • Department: Plant Pathology
  • Presentation Title: A Probiotic Capsule that Boosts Plant Immunity

Sean McGuire

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Solving the Puzzles of Plant Oil Accumulation for a Sustainable Future

Anita Paneru

  • Department: Plant Pathology
  • Presentation Title: Soil Signals: How Plants and Microbes Talk Beneath Our Feet

Rachel Potter

  • Department: Food Science
  • Presentation Title: Understanding Sensory and Physical Food Properties and Their Role on Food Acceptance in Children

Tana Rayburn

  • Department: Institute of Biological Chemistry
  • Presentation Title: Grow Your Vitamins: Riboflavin-Enriched Crops for a More Nutritious Future

Valentina Sierra Jiminez

  • Department: Institute of Biological Chemistry
  • Presentation Title: Experimental and Modeling Contributions to Selective Carbonization

Bhupinderjeet Singh

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Advancing the Understanding and Modeling of Snow Processes for Sustainable Food, Water, and Energy Management

Yuan Su

  • Department: Food Science
  • Presentation Title: Modeling Chlorine Efficacy to Control Listeria Monocytogenes in Apple Dump Tanks

Camille Wagstaff

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: You Transmit What You Eat: Gut Content Analysis of Beet Leafhoppers and Pathogen Transmission

Mckaela Whilden

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Blueberries and Beekeeping: a Transdisciplinary Approach to Identify Causative Factors of European Foulbrood

2024 Presentations

Winners:

Master’s Level:

  • First Place: Igbagbolere “Lere” David
  • Second Place: Joshual Mollel
  • People’s Choice: Tholen Blasko and Hasan Rahat

PhD Level

  • First Place: Niharika “Niha” Chandrakanth
  • Second Place: Taydin Macon
  • People’s Choice: Bipin Neupane

Tholen Blasko

  • Department: Animal Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Detection of Environmental DNA with CRISPR Technology

Igbagbolere David

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Evaluation of a Stabilized Oxalic Acid Formulation (VarroxSanTM) for Control of Varroa Mites (Varroa Destructor)

Joshua Mollel

  • Department: AMDT
  • Presentation Title: Does it Fit the Body? Scenario-Experimental Evaluation of Augmented Reality Technology-Based Virtual Try on Apparel

Hasan Rahat

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: ADBA: Kinetic Modeling of Algae Mixotrophic Growth in AD Wastewater

Dipanwita Barai

  • Department: Economic Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Why are There so Many Uncompleted Oil Wells?

Jeremy Boutin

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Cannabis: What’s that Smell?

Thiago Campbell

  • Department: Horticulture Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Agronomic Strategies Targeting Biennial Bearing Issues in Apple Production

Niharika Chandrkanth

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Breaking Down Walls for a Greener Tomorrow

Meijing Liang

  • Department: Crop Sciences
  • Presentation Title: Wheat Wizardry: How AI Aids Grain Inspection

Bipin Neupane

  • Department: Plant Pathology
  • Presentation Title: Wheat the Heck Did We Do? (And How to Fix It)

Bipin Neupane

  • Department: Plant Pathology
  • Presentation Title: Wheat the Heck Did We Do? (And How to Fix It)

Miguel Rosas

  • Department: Molecular Plant Sciences
  • Presentation Title: How Can We Develop Crops that Better Harvest Nitrogen-based Fertilizers and Prevent Environmental Pollution?

Supriya Savalkar

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Earlier Planting – Our Knight in Shining Armor?

Milton Valencia-Ortiz

  • Department: Biological Systems Engineering
  • Presentation Title: Advanced Sensing for Aphanomyces Root Rot Monitoring in Peas

2023 Presentations

Winners

PhD Level

  • First Place: Samodya Jaysinghe
  • Second Place: Camille Wagstaff
  • People’s Choice: Samodya Jaysinghe

Master’s Level

  • First Place: Kellen Pautzke
  • First Place: Lynanne Chao
  • People’s Choice: Henry Hurt

Gianna Desch

  • Department: AMDT
  • Presentation Title: How OTT influences Gen Z’s fashion trend adoption

Olivia Shaffer

  • Department: Entomology
  • Presentation Title: Urban Agriculture Supports Stable Bee Communities

Lynnanne Chao

  • Department: AMDT
  • Presentation Title: US Consumers’ Attitudes, Preferences and Buy Behavior towards Modern Qipao

Jennifer Darner

  • Department: Horticulture
  • Presentation Title: The economic impact of the western tarnished plant bug feeding on potatoes grown in the Columbia Basin

India Cain

  • Department: Horticulture
  • Presentation Title: Utilizing a non-destructive approach to improve uniformity of Phase 2 fruit samples in the Washington State University Apple Breeding Program

Roshani Baral

  • Department: Plant Pathology
  • Presentation Title: Don’t let your blueberries turn gray!

Noah Willsea

  • Department: Horticulture
  • Presentation Title: Can you have your cake and eat it too? Optimizing the tradeoffs between sunburn and red color in apples