Doctoral Researcher Albert Bellmunt Gil from the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Research was one of the winners of the SANORD 3MT competition.
Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT) was organised as part of the 2023 Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD) conference which was organised in Hamar, Norway in September. During the competition, participating doctoral researchers gave a compelling spoken presentation on their research topic and its significance in just three minutes and in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
Doctoral Researcher Albert Bellmunt Gil from the University of Turku was one of the competition winners with a presentation on his research on how gambling addiction shows in people’s brain. His presentation was also voted as the audience’s favourite during 3MT competition organised at the University of Turku earlier this year.
In his research, Albert Bellmunt Gil has been looking at the brain images of gamblers trying to find the areas that make gamblers lose control. His focus has been on several different aspects such structures, function, molecules and lesions. Interestingly, his findings have been very similar to those reported in research on drug addiction and they could help in paving a way to finding a brain target to treat symptoms of addiction.
“It was an absolute pleasure to be invited to the SANORD conference and to present my 3MT. My goal with this work was to raise awareness about Gambling Disorder as a brain disease and its impact on society. The SANORD environment allowed me to do this and facilitated great discussions with the audience,” Bellmunt Gil says.
In addition to the 3MT competition, the SANORD conference brought together three hundred participants from 61 institutions in 14 countries to discuss the topic The role of higher education in contributing to just and sustainable futures. The conference included presentations in a plenary format and as well as presentations and discussion in smaller groups. Results from a number of research works were presented in parallel sessions during the conference days. During the conference, there were also meetings focusing on the further development of SANORD.
