CVR PhD student Nicholas Bariesheff attends the ANU Springbank Circle Long Lunch.

Earlier this year in October, I was lucky enough to attend the ANU Springbank Circle Long Lunch - a unique annual occasion where ANU celebrates its bequest donors, alongside the University's top leadership, where there is engagement in meaningful discussions about their philanthropy while partaking in a traditional long lunch.

At this event we were joined by the Hon Julie Bishop, ANU Chancellor, and Professor Brian Schmidt, ANU Vice-Chancellor, who each spoke about the powerful ways donors are making a difference at the University.

As a finalist at the ANU Three Minute Thesis competition this year, I was honoured to present my three-minute thesis to all the distinguished guests at the SCLL. Presenting alongside other 3MT finalists, Saishyam Ramesh and Terri Warner, we were able to engage the audience and give a glimpse into the high-quality research being done at the ANU.

The feedback we received from this was really positive:

“Our 3MT finalists captivated everyone in attendance with their ability to explain their research through accessible and engaging narratives, a stark contrast to the typical 80,000-word thesis”

“The quality of research and exceptional communication skills of Terri, Nick and Saishyam struck a chord with donors. The room buzzed with conversations sparked by the students' remarkable insights and the world-changing possibilities that their discoveries could unfold”

Being able to attend the SCLL was an awesome opportunity to showcase the research we do in the Clear Vision Research Lab and also gave me the opportunity to engage with our generous donors of the ANU.

This blog post was written by Nicholas Bariesheff, a PhD student in the Clear vision Research lab at The Australian National University.