The 2024 Three Minute Thesis final competition will be held Feb. 7, from 4 to 6 p.m.
What is the best way to distill a multitude of information into just three minutes?
That’s the question ten graduate students will be wrestling with as part of the Graduate School’s seventh annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which will be held in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom on Feb. 7, 2024, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
This event challenges students to explain their thesis to the general public. They are then evaluated by a panel of judges from across the university, including College of Arts and Sciences Dean Glen Krutz, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Associate Dean Charles Musgraves, Professor of Sociology Lori Hunter, and Physics Professor and Nobel Laureate Eric Cornell.
In the days leading up to the event, we’ll be featuring each of the competitors. Today’s is Georgia Butcher, a doctoral student in cultural anthropology whose 3MT presentation’s title is “Drone Pilots and Remote War: An Anthropological Investigation.”
Georgia Butcher
What did you do before coming to CU Boulder for graduate school?
I worked in science and technology policy in Washington, DC.
What led you to pursue your doctoral degree in your field of study?
I loved working in science and technology policy, especially when it came to issues around veterans and military service members. When I kept doing research on the issue of remote military service, I was confused why there was not that much information on it besides a handful of studies and news articles. I decided to go back to school to keep asking questions other people weren't asking, and thought that an anthropology PhD was the best way to do that.
If you had to describe your research in one sentence, what would you say?
Even though drone personnel are not deploying to war, participating in war remotely is still having significant, and unexpected, impacts on them.
What is your favorite thing about the research you do?
My favorite thing is all of the different people I get to meet and develop close friendships with.
Tell us a random fact about yourself
I am a hair double in a short horror film!
Anything else you'd like to share?
Competing in 3MT is something I have been looking forward to doing since I became a graduate student! I attended the 3MT Finals in February of 2020 and loved how clearly and succinctly all the competitors were discussing their science.