Well done to Adam Collison in the 14th year of THREESIS

I was delighted to have been asked by Marina Ansaldo, PhD of the Vice President Office of Research & Innovation at the University of Galway to mentor Adam Collison, one of the finalists in this year’s Threesis, a competition for postgraduate researchers to explain their work in 3 minutes on 3 slides in front of 3 judges in a way that is clear, engaging & relevant to a lay or public audience
Adam is a final-year PhD student in Physics and his research focuses on evaluating the impact of energy retrofits on indoor air quality in public buildings, specifically offices and schools. He is passionate about his research. As he said himself “…What excites me most about my work is that air quality affects absolutely everyone, no one can survive without air, yet the factors that shape it indoors are poorly understood by most…”

Air quality is something that I too have a strong interest in, having being involved through Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics in citizen science projects such as 'The Air We Share' (part of decarbonising Galway)with Liz Coleman & Galway City Council.
At the Grand Finale yesterday, Adam came second in a very strong field.
So a big ‘Bualadh Bos’ to Adam for achieving Silver!! A well deserved award and recognition!
I ensured that I got my photo taken with him & Prof Donal Leech, Dean Of Graduate Studies!

Though not involved anymore in an organisational role, I have had a long association with Threesis having being one of its founding members in 2012 along with Ann Lyons, Dave Finn, Ena Brophy, Dr Lorraine Tansey, Louise Nolan, Ruth Hynes, Sarah Knight & Valerie Parker.
I got the idea for it from the national Thesis-in-3 that was then organised by SFI (now
Taighde Eireann) specifically for research centres personnel which had started in 2010, with the first winner being Eyal Oren from my own NUIG institute of DERI. I felt that we could do something similar in Galway & that ‘Threesis’ would be a catchy name!
The original committee, comprising a fantastic lively bunch of visionaries, agreed. But we expanded it to include both students & staff from across all disciplines, ensuring too that the judging panel reflected the wider Galway society. In the early years, we also hosted the finals in the city centre & soon got GMIT(now ATU) involved. In our first year (2012), the grand final (see right image on dual photo) was held in the Galway building of the local branch of Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health. The audio-visual technical manager then & now was the highly professional Cormac Staunton
At the first final the 3 judges were Liam Bluett, Director of Ballybane Enterprise Centre; Frances Shanahan, RTE Journalist; & Prof Terry Smith, Vice President of Research at what was then NUI Galway

After 14 years, it's so good to see the University of Galway’s Office of Research & Innovation team keeping Threesis going from strength to strength. Maith daoibh!