Production values have soared since the Dance Your PhD competition was launched in 2008, but we still get a kick out of doctoral students attempting to explain the subjects of their dissertations through interpretive dance. Dr. Sulo Roukka of the University of Helsinki sang and danced his way to the top of the heap this year with a production number about chemesthesis, or the way people react to extreme taste compounds such as hot peppers and menthol. His dissertation is titled Insights into oral chemesthetic perception: A focus on food-related behavior. Roukka won the chemistry division and the overall grand prize. There are also winners in the categories of biology, physics and AI, and social sciences. Continue reading to see them.
In the biology category, Priya Reddy of Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology won for a video called "Plant Vaccination." Her dissertation is titled Unravelling the plant mechanisms involved in plant-microbe interactions.
The physic and AI prize was won by Arfor Houwman of the University of Innsbruck. His study is Collective Phenomena in Ultracold Dipolar Quantum Gases, but he wisely titled the dance video "Laser Cooling & Ultracold Atoms." The lyrics are at the YouTube page.
In the social sciences category, the. winner is Manisha Biswas of Humboldt University of Berlin for "The Powerful Outcomes of Collective Synchrony." It's an illustration of her dissertation Shared Rhythm to Shared Vision: Synchronous Marching increases Conformity on Perceptual Decision making.
-via Ars Technica
See winners of the Dance Your PhD competition from previous years.