I ran across an intriguing tweet the other day daring people to present a 3 emoji thesis.

I’ve actually competed in a 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition before. I made it into the 10 ten finalists of Iowa State University’s Graduate College Three-Minute Thesis Competition in November 2017. Distilling my entire thesis into a 3 minute talk with only one static slide was challenging! (Check out the video of the finals below, I’m up at 18:05)

Taking that to the extreme by completely boiling my thesis down to just 3 EMOJIS? No, that’s not possible. My research project is way to complex and interdisciplinary…

But the challenge of it sparked my interest and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would parse down my thesis to its very essence.

What is the very heart of my research?

Well, that one was easy.  I study stormwater in cities and it’s effect on streams and our water quality, on flooding, and the alteration of the global hydrologic cycle.

Water 💧

Where is my research focused?

Again, that one was pretty easy because I specifically study urban ecosystems and environments.

Cities 🏡

But there’s one other crucial component to my research.

That is people. I study the human side of stormwater management in cities. How to encourage participation and engagement in environmental issues. I study how to link the biophysical aspects of urban stormwater management with the sociological aspects.

People 👥

There you have it, my 3 emoji thesis: 💧 🏡🙋.

It is kind of amazing how accurately that little string of emojis actually does summarize my PhD. Of course there is so much more to my thesis than just that (💡📈📉🌳🌼🍃🚗🚚🚲🚧🌎🗺⛈🌪🌤🌨🌞🌡❄☔🌊💨🕳♻❗💲🗨👁‍🗨🕑🕗🕝🐶🐟🐛👧👵👮✍👂📢🔬⚙⚗📞🖱🖨⌨💡📗📑📖💰🗓📊🕰) but that’s for anther post 😉