Faculty committee:  S. J. Mulvaney, chair; C. D. Bustamante 

The research honors program in physical sciences provides outstanding students with an opportunity to do independent research under the supervision of a faculty member in the Departments of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Food Science, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, or Biological Statistics and Computational Biology.

In addition to meeting the requirements of the college, the student is expected to:

1. Identify a thesis advisor and thesis topic before the end of the junior year.
   
   
2. Work with the thesis advisor to prepare a budget, short research proposal (2–3 pages), and application form. These materials must be received by the Physical Sciences committee chair by the end of the third week of senior year.
   
   
3. Enroll in the program for a minimum of two semesters.
   
   
4. Enroll in the appropriate departmental undergraduate research course for a total of at least 6 credits.
   
   
5. Submit an outline of the thesis to the chair of the committee by the end of January (for a May graduation).
   
   
6. Submit a draft of the thesis to the thesis advisor with sufficient lead-time for a revision to be prepared.
   
   
7. Submit three copies of the thesis and names of recommended reviewers to the chair of the honors committee by four weeks before the end of classes in the semester in which graduation is expected.
   
   
8. Students may volunteer to submit electronically to the honors committee chair a copy of their final approved thesis (in pdf or Word format) for Mann Library. Mann Library has given CALS the opportunity to have theses available to the public electronically if this does not interfere with other plans, such as patenting or publishing in another journal. A permission form to allow the thesis to be made available online at Mann Library can be obtained from the honors committee chair.
   
   
9. In addition, students are required to submit electronically to the honors committee chair their thesis title, research advisor’s name, and abstract (in Word format). During each summer, the CALS Research Honors Abstracts publication is published (on the web beginning 2009) as a compilation of research honors thesis abstracts.

There is no required format, but the thesis is usually written in the form of a research journal article or a master’s thesis.

Further details of the program can be obtained from the chair of the Physical Sciences Research Honors Committee.