The Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM), Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, proudly celebrates the outstanding achievements of its postgraduate students at the Universiti Malaya Three Minute Thesis (UM3MT) Competition 2026.
Earlier at the Faculty of Medicine level competition held on 18 May 2026, SPM postgraduate students achieved a remarkable clean sweep of the top three awards, reflecting the department’s strong culture of academic excellence and research communication.
Building on their success at the faculty level, all three SPM candidates were selected to represent the Faculty of Medicine at the Universiti Malaya-level UM3MT competition, where they once again delivered exceptional performances against participants from across the university.
At the university-level competition, Dr Sumitra Ropini A/P Karuthan was awarded Second Prize, further elevating the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine’s presence on the university stage. The competition’s First Prize was awarded to a candidate from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, while Third Prize went to a candidate from the Faculty of Dentistry.
The UM3MT competition challenges doctoral candidates to present their research and its significance in just three minutes using a single presentation slide. Beyond academic excellence, the competition emphasises the ability to communicate complex research clearly, concisely, and engagingly to broader audiences — an increasingly important skill in advancing evidence-informed public health practice and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Dr Sumitra’s achievement now qualifies her to proceed to the National Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The national-level selection process will take place in two stages. Participating universities are first required to submit video recordings of up to four candidates. Subsequently, the top 10 candidates selected from these submissions will advance to the physical national competition scheduled to be held at USM on 8 July 2026.
The Department also acknowledges the encouraging feedback shared by the Faculty of Medicine leadership regarding the exceptional performance of the faculty’s representatives at the university-level competition.
According to Associate Professor Dr Anand A/L Sanmugam, Deputy Dean (Postgraduate), Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya:
“One of our FOM representatives, Dr Sumithra (from SPM) won the 2nd prize at the UM 3-Min thesis competition. Feedback was that our faculty representatives who won the top 3 prizes at the faculty level competition, did exceptionally well at the university-level competition. Incidentally, all of them are from the SPM department.”
The department also extends its sincere appreciation to the judges and coaches who provided invaluable guidance and support to the candidates despite the short preparation period:
- Professor Wong Won Fen (Department of Molecular Medicine)
- Associate Professor Dr Azlina (Department of Biomedical Science)
- Ms Geeta Anbalagan (Sports Medicine)
Their mentorship played an important role in helping the candidates refine their presentations and effectively communicate the impact of their research.
These achievements reflect the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine’s continued commitment to nurturing postgraduate researchers who are not only academically accomplished, but also capable of translating research into meaningful and accessible public health narratives for society.
The department congratulates all winners and participants for representing SPM and the Faculty of Medicine with distinction, and wishes Dr Sumitra every success in the upcoming national-level selection process and competition.
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