November 25, 2013

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Winners of the Dance Your PhD Competition Revealed

For the past 6 years, Science magazine and its publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have challenged researchers to explain their doctoral research through interpretive dance.

By Julianne Chiaet

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

For the past 6 years, Science magazine and its publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have challenged researchers to explain their doctoral research through interpretive dance. This year, the winners of the Dance Your Ph.D. contest goes to Cedric Tan, a biologist whose postdoctoral research examines the relationship between sperm and the egg. In the winning submission, Tan explains his thesis, titled “Sperm competition between brothers and female choice,” through water ballet, jazz, and the use of a human bubble (the egg).

While Tan won both the overall prize and the biology category, Timothy Hunter took home the price for the physics category. His dance represents his interpretation of his thesis “Multi-axial fatigue for predicting [the] life of mechanical components.”

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The winner of the Reader Favorite award went to Andrew Florez for dancing the salsa to convey his biology research on cancer cells.

https://vimeo.com/user20869469/neuroblastoma

The winners were chosen from a pool of 31 submissions. You can watch the rest of the winners’ submissions here.

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