Williams Biology Research Honors and Independent Study

Honors research culminates in a Senior Thesis and requires a year-long commitment involving two semester courses and a Winter Study course devoted to research. The honors research program is a lot of work but most students find it to be correspondingly rewarding; during the course of the year, you become a working scientist, and the experience of realizing that you have become one of the world's experts within a particular area can be extremely exciting and fulfilling.

A few key points to keep in mind about applying for honors:

Be sure to discuss your ideas and interests with all professors with whom you might like to work. Start this process at least a few weeks before the application deadline- if you're studying abroad, you can accomplish this through e-mail. [During WSP, there is a lab open house that will allow you to visit labs and talk to faculty about their research and to students working in the labs.] The application page indicates faculty who are taking honors students for 2008-09. You can link to the application form from that information page.
Keep the following in mind as you fill out the application form:
- Students who list only one faculty member with whom they would like to work, decrease their chance of being chosen if that lab has more students applying to that lab than the lab can manage. If a student does not get placed in the one lab he/she listed, he/she will be able to reapply, listing labs in which there are still spots remaining after all other students have been placed. This also applies to students who apply late.
- The department attempts to find slots for all students who wish to do honors research, but very occasionally the interest in the honors research has slightly exceeded the available slots in professors' labs. Talking to a professor doesn't ensure that you will be accepted as his or her Honors Thesis student, as that decision is ultimately up to the department. Still, talking to the professors with whom you would like to work does improve your chance of being selected, and most students do end up doing Honors research in the field of their choice.

Curricular Information

Only one of the two semesters of honors research can be counted towards the nine-course minimum for the Biology major.
Students who successfully complete the honors thesis will be awarded the B.A. degree with honors; a few of the very best honors students will receive highest honors, based primarily upon the quality of their thesis and, to a lesser extent, on the quality of their course work in biology.
The quality of the thesis work is evaluated by the Biology faculty in several ways.
- First, your day-to-day performance in carrying out your research is assessed by your thesis advisor.
- Second, your final written thesis is evaluated by your advisor and another faculty member chosen by the department in consultation with your advisor, who serves as a second reader. Examine some of the previous theses produced by honors students available in Schow Library (QH9 W5.) to get an idea of what "writing a thesis" really means!
- Third, the two public presentations of your thesis project are important in judging your understanding of the theory and significance of your work and the appropriateness of your experimental protocol. The first presentation is an 8-minute oral presentation of your research plans given ~4 weeks into the semester; the final presentation is at a poster session held the next-to-last Friday of the spring semester of your senior year.

Important Dates and Deadlines

There are three options with different timetables for performing the research that leads to a senior thesis. The usual route is to devote your senior year to the project, starting in the fall, working through Winter Study, and finishing in the spring. However, students who wish to do a fieldwork-intensive thesis that requires data gathered in the spring and summer should give special consideration to the option of starting a thesis in the spring of their junior year. The various options for completing a Senior Thesis are given in the table below.

Note: Dates and times in red are HARD deadlines. Departmental Honors will not be awarded if these deadlines are not met.

Independent Research

Students (usually juniors or seniors) may also apply for a one-semester research experience. Although these research projects are often more limited in scope than honors research and culminate in a research paper rather than an honors thesis, this is also a good way to try your hand at independent research. If you want to gain some experience with carrying out research in a particular field of biology, a semester of independent research can be a good introduction to the types of methods and approaches used in that area. Or if you can't fit honors research into your academic schedule (one course each semester plus WSP), one semester of independent research can also give you valuable research experience. Some students have even done independent research for one semester during their junior year and then gone on to do honors research their senior year in a different lab.

Stage	Fall-WS-Spring	WS-Spring-Fall	Spring-Fall-WS
Discuss plans with potential advisors	WSP Jr. year	Early Fall Jr. year	Early Fall Jr. year
Application to Biology Department	3rd Mon. in WSP	Second Friday in Oct..	3rd Mon. in WSP
Notification of acceptance	before Spring break	10 days later	10 days later
Presentation of research plan	1st/2nd Fri. in Oct.	1st/2nd Fri. in Mar.	1st/2nd Fri. in Mar.
Introduction and References due	Monday, Fall Exam Reading Pd.	Spring Reading Pd.	Monday, Spring Exam Reading Pd.
1st complete draft to advisor	3rd Monday following Spring Break	2nd Monday after Fall Break	Monday, 2nd wk of WSP
Posters mounted and on display	8 am Thursday penultimate week of class Spring term	8 am Thursday penultimate week of class Spring term	8 am Thursday penultimate week of class Spring term
Poster presentation of thesis	Friday pm, penultimate week of classes Spring term	Friday pm, penultimate week of class, Spring term	Friday pm penultimate week of class in Spring term
2nd complete draft to second reader	Monday of last week of class	Monday of last week of class	Thursday, 3rd week of WSP
Final draft to advisor	Friday, Spring Exam Period	Friday, Fall Exam Period	1st day Spr. Semester
Final copy of thesis	5 pm last day of final exams spring semester (technical office, Sawyer Library)	5 pm last day of final exams, spring semester	5 pm last day of final exams, spring semester

The application process is the same as outlined above for honors research. The application form and deadlines are available here.

Evaluation of your independent research project is done solely by your research advisor and is based on your day-to-day performance in the lab, the quality of your final research paper, and other criteria your advisor may set for you. There is no standard requirement for any public presentation of your research, however if your advisor and/or you desire to do so you may present your research orally (in the fall semester) or as a poster (in the spring semester) along with students carrying out honors research.