An 80,000-word Ph.D. thesis would take 9 hours to present. Their time limit... 3 minutes. 

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is an academic competition that challenges doctoral students to describe their research to a general audience within three minutes.

The Three Minute Thesis public competition at the University of Rochester is sponsored by the Graduate Education Office and the Office of the Vice President for Research, along with the Office for Global Engagement, the UR Health Lab, and the River Campus Libraries.