Byron Abraham Daniel, 2023 Finalist
Carnegie Mellon University’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition pits doctoral students against the clock and each other to explain complex research and captivate their audience in just three minutes. Each year, 10 Ph.D. students from schools and colleges across CMU compete to gain early career recognition, connect with the campus community, and win prizes of up to $3,000.
We asked Mellon College of Science Ph.D. student Byron Abraham Daniel, who competed in the 3MT Championship in 2023, a few questions about his experience and how it shaped his journey.
Q: Share a bit about your area of study/research at CMU. What did you focus on for your 3MT presentation?
A: For my presentation, I focused on explaining how understanding the mass of the particle known as the neutrino can help us answer questions such as how fast the universe expanded just after the Big Bang.
Q: How did preparing for 3MT assist you with the rest of your studies, including completing your dissertation?
A: Preparing for the 3MT helped me recognize my communication style and strengths in science communication. While there are standard ways of presenting physics concepts in academia, the process showed me that I’m particularly effective at developing more accessible and intuitive explanations. This insight carried over into the rest of my studies and helped me present my dissertation work with greater clarity and purpose.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the competition? What was your favorite part?
A: My biggest challenge was that my research was not applicable or easily relatable to the everyday person. But, that challenge is why I was so interested in participating in the competition. My goal in life is to make science accessible to as many people as possible, so I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if I could find some way to get others in the university excited about complex physics concepts they had never heard of before.
Q: 3MT winners, from both the preliminary rounds and the finals, receive a monetary prize. How did that help you on your journey?
A: I put the money toward purchasing a new research laptop because my old research laptop was about seven years old at the time and was starting to have problems.
Q: What are you working on today?
A: Today, I work as a high school physics and chemistry teacher in my hometown. When I was a student here, only a small group of students—those considered exceptionally strong in math—were able to take physics and chemistry. Most students never got the chance.
I am now building a curriculum that changes that. I’m designing physics and chemistry courses that are accessible, rigorous, and engaging for every student in the county. My focus is on hands-on learning, clear explanations, and scientific thinking rather than gatekeeping.
My goal is for every student to have access to these subjects, not just the top 5%.
Q: What advice would you give to students considering 3MT this year?
A: My biggest piece of advice is to practice your presentation with friends or family outside your research group. The goal of 3MT is to communicate your research clearly to a non-specialist audience, and these listeners are especially good at revealing blind spots—places where you assume background knowledge or lose clarity.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about how your experience has impacted you?
A: It helped me reconnect with what I value most in science and reminded me why I wanted to become a scientist in the first place. For a long time, I believed that what mattered most to me was solving complex problems in academic physics. But during the three-minute thesis competition, I realized something different: my favorite part of science is helping my community. I love answering people’s questions and finding creative ways to explain concepts so that anyone—whether a six-year-old student or an eighty-year-old grandparent—can understand them and get excited. That experience made it clear that sharing science is not just something I do; it’s the work I’m most proud of.