Departmental Honors Program
The departmental honors program is intended for students with 3.0 or higher GPAs and who wish to gain experience conducting research in a faculty member laboratory. Students interested in doing research should peruse the full-time faculty roster here and read about the research interests pursued by our various faculty. Having identified one or more faculty members conducting research in an area of interest, the student should reach out to them to inquire about potential availability of space in their lab. Each faculty member may have different and more specific criteria for their particular lab. Please note that lab spaces are limited and so a faculty member may not be able to sponsor you because their lab is already full.
A typical timeline for completion of an honors research thesis project is as follows: one semester in BIOL 4990 gaining familiarity with the research, one semester in BIOL 4990 preparing the honors research prospectus, two consecutive semesters in BIOL 3960 conducting the honors research project. The writing and oral defense of the honors research thesis occurs near the end of the final semester in BIOL 3960 as well. Thus, students often begin working in a faculty research lab the summer before the junior year or sooner.
Information on the Departmental Honors Program can be found on the Department of Biological Sciences page in the University's e-catalog.