Marshall aims to make smaller and more efficient MOFs. The resulting porous network is sponge-like, making these materials ideal for carbon capture applications, as well as drug delivery, detoxifying nerve agents, and water purification. Marshall's PhD thesis dealt with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), crystalline polymer materials formed by binding metal ions with polydentate organic linkers. And the contest has a new sponsor this year: Sandbox AQ, an Alphabet spinoff focused on tackling large problems by bringing together artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. All category winners receive $500, while Marshall, as the overall champion, will receive an additional $2,000. Winners were chosen from 28 entries submitted from 12 different countries. There are four broad categories: physics, chemistry, biology, and social science, with a fairly liberal interpretation of what topics fall under each. The contest was such a hit that Bohannon started getting emails asking when the next would be-and Dance Your PhD has continued ever since. So he put together a dance party at Austria's Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, including a contest for whichever candidate could best explain their thesis topics with interpretive dance. Bohannon told Slate in 2011 that he came up with the idea while trying to figure out how to get a group of stressed-out PhD students in the middle of defending their theses to let off a little steam. It was previously sponsored by Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is now sponsored by AI company Primer, where Bohannon is the director of science. Other winning videos provided creative takes on how local trees in the Amazon rainforest produce a protective hormone in response to drought diffusing ions at the nanoscale, illustrated with a tango and an artificial intelligence model called PsychGenerator that aims to bring personality and mental health attributes to AI.Īs we've reported previously, the Dance Your PhD contest was established in 2008 by science journalist John Bohannon. University of Oregon chemist Checkers Marshall took top honors in the 2023 Dance Your PhD contest, combining hand fans, blue balloons, and original lyrics to make a dance video explaining their work on 'nano-sponge' materials for use in carbon capture and drug delivery. Checkers Marshall’s award-winning dance depicted electrons moving around in crystalline materials that have a variety of applications.

Sponges moving