91ÉçÇø

Postdoc Scholar Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks at USF are a fast-paced, community-building format that spotlights postdoctoral scholar research, sparks interdisciplinary conversation, and makes research accessible to students, colleagues, and the wider campus community.

Lightning Talks at the 91ÉçÇø are an annual event featuring brief, engaging research presentations hosted by the Office of Graduate Studies and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. The series began in Fall 2024, partnered with the 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) competition, and invited USF postdocs to give less than four-minute talks on their current research. The effort proved so popular that it became a regular, ongoing series.  Since 2025, the format has been reduced to three minutes maximum to align with our 3MT, but includes multiple slides to prepare them for lightning talk opportunities at conferences. 

The format is intentionally concise — each presenter distills their research into a short, accessible talk, using only a few graphical slides, making complex academic work digestible for a broad audience. Presentations span a range of disciplines, from engineering, public health, goesciences, education implementation, and behavioral science.

91ÉçÇø's 2026 Postdoc Scholar Lightning Talks will take place on October 23, 2026, in tandem with the 3MT finals on the Tampa campus.

Postdoc Scholar Lightning Talks Event Info

• Date: October 23, 2026
• Time: 10:30 - 11:30 AM EST (Please arrive by 9:30 AM)
• Location: C.W. Young ROTC Building (CWY 206), Tampa campus

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Workshops for slide design, presentation preparation, and practice/feedback:

• Registration Deadline: October 19
• Workshop Presentation Prep: | 12:00 - 1:00 PM
• Practice/Feedback: October 1 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM | ALN 296

Slides must be sent to Dr. Tracy Costello no later than October 19, 2026, in PowerPoint PDF format after registration - tcostello111@usf.edu

1st Place (Tied)

• Kelly Navas
  • Title: Small Change Big Impact 
  • College of Education
  • Department: Center for Research, Evaluation, Assessment and Measurement
• Yu Zeng
  • Title: The Mystery of Ballistic Tongues: nature’s hidden catapults 
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • Department: Integrative Biology

People's Choice

• Yongxiang Li
  • Title: Paternal behavior is controlled by preoptic Trpc5 neurons
  • Morsani College of Medicine
  • Department: Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

USF World Winner

• Ana Paula Rodrigues
  • Title: Diet quality in a diverse sample of pediatric cancer survivors with overweight/obesity: A cross-sectional comparison with the general population 
  • College of Behavioral & Community Sciences
  • Department: Child & Family Studies