Every year, Science’s Dance Your PhD Competition challenges PhD students past and present to convey their graduate work in the form of interpretive dance. This year’s finalists were especially excellent. Now, the winners have been announced!
https://gizmodo.com/check-out-the-winners-of-this-years-dance-your-phd-comp-5851521
https://gizmodo.com/ph-d-students-explain-their-research-using-interpretiv-5951989
This year’s grand prize winner was non other than University of Oxford biologist Cedric Tan, whose thesis dance (“Sperm competition between brothers and female choice”) we featured a couple weeks ago when we told you about this year’s finalists. Tan’s dance depicts the chicken mating process with an impressive range of styles “from swing and water ballet—yes, in actual water—to modern jazz and what can only be described as cockfighting.” Tan won both the Biology category and the overall prize of $1000 dollars. He’s also been awarded a trip to screen his video at Stanford. Stanford where he will present his video.
https://gizmodo.com/dance-your-phd-finalists-have-been-announced-and-they-1461132556
Here now are the winners from the remaining categories!
Winner of the Chemistry Category
Ambalika Khadria’s “The ‘FRETting’ tendency of the bacterial protein!” – An experimental trick for determining whether proteins are linked in pairs.
Winner of the Physics Category
Timothy Hunter’s “Energy Based Fatigue” – Understanding the forces involved in metal fatigue, as explained with human analogues.
Winner of the Social Sciences Category
Tina Sundelin’s “Sleep Loss in a Social World” – How might a given dan differ when preceded by a night of sleep loss, as opposed to one of restful sleep?
Reader Favorite
Andres Florez’s “The Super-Hero Salsa” – Understanding the Role of MYCN in Neuroblastoma using a Systems Biology Approach.
[Science]
