UI grad student wins state Three Minute Thesis title

BOISE — University of Idaho graduate student Maribel Alfaro won Wednesday’s state title in the Three Minute Thesis competition in Boise.

Alfaro, a master’s candidate in civil and environmental engineering, beat 11 other graduate students from UI, Boise State University and Idaho State University. The title came with a $500 prize.

The competitors presented their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation research in just three minutes and with one PowerPoint slide. The event was held at Jack’s Urban Meeting Place near the BSU campus.

The title of Alfaro’s presentation was “Microbial Metabolomics: From Manure to Bioplastics.” Her research was advised by Erik Coats.

Other UI students at the competition were Kimberly Davenport, Gabrielle Becker and Marie Janneke Schwane. Davenport and Becker are from Moscow.

Rachel Phinney of BSU placed second, Dylan Gomes of BSU placed third and Averi McFarland of ISU earned the People’s Choice Award.