Kathryn Henley, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, took home first place at the 3MT Regional Competition at the Conference for Southern Graduate Schools in Annapolis, Maryland, on March 5. Henley competed against students from 45 universities.

The purpose of the competition is to challenge Ph.D. and professional doctoral students to communicate the significance of their projects to a general audience in just three minutes. The competition is now held in at least 200 universities across more than 18 countries worldwide. The UAB Graduate School held its first 3MT competition in October, at which Henley won first place and moved on to the regional competition.

Henley’s research focuses on developing two methods to assess pain in pigs, using the science of animal communication. Her interest in relieving chronic pain began nine years ago, after her father fell from a ladder and sustained a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the shoulders down. She hopes to develop better pain medications for people living with chronic pain.