A l'UM la science [S04-ep23] : 3 years of thesis summed up in 3 minutes
This week in A l'UM la science, doctoral students Jérémy Defrance of the Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (Cefe), Klara Asselin from the Infectious Diseases and Vectors: Ecology, Genetics, Evolution and Control (Mivegec) and Sandra Victor from the Montpellier Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics Laboratory (Lirmm) talk about the Ma thèse en 180 secondes competition. The program is broadcast every Wednesday on radio station Divergence.
In 2024, some 64,000 students were enrolled in doctoral programs. 42% of them had parents who were managers or professionals, 3.6% came from working-class backgrounds and only 1.3% were children of farmers. This finding has changed little since Pierre Bourdieu's first work on the subject in the 60s. The cause: social reproduction, of course, leading to selection on the basis of social, economic and intellectual capital, but also perhaps a lack of understanding on the part of the general public of what a thesis can be, and of research more generally.
To democratize and popularize this ultimate academic exercise, a number of initiatives have been launched, including Ma thèse en 180 secondes. Inspired by Three Minutes Thesis, conceived in Australia in 2008, the French-language version of this scientific competition was revived in Quebec in 2012, before arriving in France in 2014. The principle is simple: present your thesis, as the name suggests, in 3 minutes, using a single slide and in front of a lay audience. Humor plays an important role, as do references to popular culture.
In 2020, Deborah Faucon, an expert in the titanium used to make aircraft doors, won the Occitanie regional final with her "Welcome aboard flight MT 180". Before her, Yassin Tachikart, a doctoral student in biology and pharmacy, compared senescent cells "to that neighbor who turns the music up at 4 a.m. and wakes up the whole building". In 2021, Mathilde Guérin seduced the audience with a performance straight out of an Asterix album, in which the druid Pronostix saved his patient "from the bacteria trying to invade the village of Plaie-ouverte-qui-fait-malix".
This year, it was the song of a chickadee that won over the public and the MT 180 jury. Behind this song is Jérémy Defrance, a doctoral student at Cefe, the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology. He is interested in the role of resources in the reproduction of great tits in urban and forest environments.
Watch Jérémy Defrance's presentation
On the second step of the podium, the jury placed Klara Asselin from the Mivegec laboratory for Maladies infectieuses et vecteur écologie, génétique, évolution et contrôle. Her research focuses on the impact of sexual reproduction on the vertical transmission of cancers.
Watch Klara Asselin's presentation
Sandra Victor from the Laboratoire d'informatique de robotique et de microélectronique de Montpellier(Lirmm) climbed to third place with a presentation on modeling hybrid behavior when interacting with intelligent automated agents, in this case an autonomous car.
Watch Sandra Victor's presentation
At UM la science you've got the program, let's go!
Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews : Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Alice Rollet
Listen to the "A l'UM la science" program on Divergence FM 93.9
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