The stinging heat of chili peppers, the cooling taste of mint, and the drying sensation from drinking tea were all part of Sulo Roukka’s winning entry in Science’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest this year. During the dance, the University of Helsinki food scientist flamboyantly sheds a white lab coat to reveal a red suit, complete with a coattail, symbolizing a chili pepper. He leaps and twirls with sequined partners amid flashing lights in his sensory lab and through the school’s hallways. To Roukka, the best part of the process was bringing friends together “to create something amazing.”
Based on the thesis he defended in January, Roukka’s dance explored the differing sensations among people caused by food compounds such as the fiery capsaicin found in chili (“Hot! Hot! Hot!” accompanying lyrics go) or the icy menthol found in mint (“Cool! Cool! Cool!”). Roukka studied how those sensations, known as chemesthesis, influence human experience, such as remembering the pleasantness of certain foods. These insights can help create better foods, such as plant-based products or nonalcoholic drinks.
Roukka, who took home the $2750 overall and chemistry category prizes, recruited some friends who created costumes, directed, and filmed the action. He also enlisted dancers from one of the university’s musical theater groups. “I got to experience a ‘Kylie Minogue’ fantasy,” he says, recalling a part of the video where he’s lifted up by other dancers in the same way that pop singer often is. The video also features a cameo by his Ph.D. supervisor, food chemist Mari Sandell.
Roukka’s No. 1 fan—his cousin's 6-year-old daughter Frida—was mad about not being in the video, he says. But Roukka has already made her a promise: “If I ever do another Ph.D., I will make sure she’s the first one to join for the next Dance Your Ph.D. music video.”
For judge Alexa Meade, a visual artist, Roukka’s dance hit all the right notes. “I felt like it could appeal to the largest range of people—that’s just delightful,” she says, adding that the creativity, music, lights, and costumes contributed to the dance snagging this year’s top spot. Besides the artistic aspects, she also felt like the video was “such a fun way of absorbing information,” Meade says.
The long-running contest is sponsored by SandboxAQ, an artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in large quantitative models, which funded the prizes for the traditional four categories this year, as well as a special prize for dances related to its research focus. The other winners include: Priya Reddy for biology, Manisha Biswas for social sciences, and Arfor Houwman for physics and the extra AI/quantum prize. Each category winner won $750 and Houwman won an additional $750 because of the special prize.
The contest was started in 2008 by John Bohannon, a former Science correspondent, who’s now a data scientist at South Park Commons. Bohannon, who has overseen each year’s contest, notes that European scientists dominated this time around: “This year, American scientists did not seem to be in the mood to dance. Lucky for the world, Europe’s scientists have doubled their creativity and enthusiasm.”
More: https://www.science.org/content/article/winner-2025-dance-your-ph-d-contest
