The two winners of Northern Michigan University's inaugural Three-Minute Thesis competition will advance to the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools' regional competition April 6 in Grand Rapids. Tianli Kilpatrick, a master's degree candidate in English, earned first place and the People's Choice Award for her presentation, titled "The Immortal Jellyfish, and Other Things That Don't Know About Love." William Brown, a biology student, finished second with "Development of Rapid HIV Diagnostic Assay Using Isothermal Amplification Coupled with Peptide Nuclear Acid and Gold Nanoparticle Colorimetric Detection."

Both winners will give their winning presentations at the opening cermemony of the NMU Celebration of Student Scholarship on Thursday, April 12. Other participating Three-Minute Thesis scholars will also be recognized. They are: Kim Rosewall, English; Aditi Vyas, exercise science; and Crystal Lakvold, public administration.

"All presentations were outstanding and represented the breadth of disciplinary scholarship in NMU graduate programs," said Lisa Schade Eckert, interim director of graduate education. 

Judges for the campus competition were: Alec Lindsay, biology professor and chair of Academic Senate; Jason Nicholas, director of Institutional Research and Analysis; and Taylor Norman, visiting professor of English.