3MT Winner Spotlight | Alex Marinelli

"I chose the environmental biology program because I was always interested in that field. Almost all of my family is into biology, but I was always more interested in the large-scale than the small-scale stuff like biochemistry."

Alex Marinelli, M.S. Environmental Biology

Program

Environmental Biology (M.S.)

Department

Biology

Graduate School
Graduate Student

Academics
Experiential Learning
Natural Sciences
Awards

05/04/2022

Hood’s 6th annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition is an internationally recognized event in which graduate students use one slide and three minutes to present their chosen research topic.

Alex Marinelli, a current graduate student in Hood College's environmental biology program, won first place for his talk, "River Invaders: The Rise and Fall of the Rusty Crayfish." Outside of the environmental biology program, Alex has worked as a researcher at the Freshwater Institute in Shepherdstown and worked at the Center for Coastal and Watershed studies right here at Hood College up until the pandemic. Alex is a graduate of Washington College, where he received his bachelor's in biology. Alex will be graduating from Hood in May 2022.

We spoke with Alex to get some insight on why he chose to compete in Hood’s 3MT and how he feels about the opportunity to take his talk to the next level.

Why did you choose Hood College and the program you are in?

I chose Hood College because it looked like it had a nice graduate program, and I chose the environmental biology program because I was always interested in that field. Almost all of my family is into biology, but I was always more interested in the large-scale than the small-scale stuff like biochemistry.

When I was deciding to do a thesis, I saw Dr. Annis had some unpublished research regarding the crayfish, and I always had an interest in invasive species, as it seemed like one of the more exciting aspects of environmental biology, and it's something nearly everybody has heard of at some point.

Why did you pick to speak about the rise and fall of the rusty crayfish?

I have always had an interest in the more obscure animals. I would often draw lobsters or squids in my notebooks in middle school as opposed to birds or dogs, so I thought crayfish would be a far more interesting species than more familiar animals. Learning about the invasion was also interesting and exciting to me because it was more tangible than things like evolution or cellular biology; you can picture the spread of an invasive species on a map easily.

What did you enjoy the most about the 3MT event and how did you prep for it?

Prepping for the 3MT was near the back of my mind actually, as the day after I had to defend my thesis in a two-hour rush of PowerPoints and questioning!

The hardest part was condensing it into three minutes and rehearsing. Thankfully, I knew the material front and back at that point. I wrote up a little script covering the most basic points and just said it over and over again while pacing around, so it was like second nature to me by the time of the competition.

I also have a background in theater, which I think helped with the energy; I did plays from middle school to high school, and I think that gives me an easier time talking in front of an audience or a camera.

Inspired by Alex’s story and ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn more about Hood College’s graduate programs, including the Master’s in Environmental Biology by clicking here.