Department of Biology
Research projects can be conducted in the laboratory of a Biology faculty member or outside of the Department (such as with faculty members in the Medical Center, NIH, or Smithsonian) with the mentorship of a Biology faculty member.
This option is available to majors in Biology, Neurobiology and the Biology of Global Health.
First, consider the areas of biology that interest you. Read the descriptions of the research activities sponsored by the Biology faculty, search by the faculty member's name or by research area. In general, laboratory research projects relate to the main theme of the mentor's or the outside research mentor’s laboratory. You must discuss the proposed project prior to enrolling with the faculty member.
During your sophomore or junior year, you should speak with several appropriate faculty members about their research and how your thesis interests might fit into their programs. Based on this information, determine the faculty member with whom you are interested in working and obtain his or her approval to mentor your research.
Submit the Senior Thesis Declaration Form, signed by both you and your mentor, to the Chair of the Undergraduate Committee by the date indicated on the form.
It is important to pursue your options early, especially if you intend to conduct a laboratory project. Many faculty have space for only a limited number of research students and will accept students on a first-come basis.
The Biology faculty will consider sponsoring laboratory research which is conducted under the direct supervision of scientists in the GU medical center or in other local research institutions (e.g., at the NIH, consortium universities, Smithsonian). Such a collaboration requires considerable interaction among the student, the Biology faculty mentor, and the external mentor to assure maximal benefits.
It is the responsibility of the student to obtain approval from both mentors. External mentors must also sign the Senior Thesis Declaration Form.
The first meeting should be held early in September (see year-long timeline). At this meeting, the research hypothesis, rationale and experimental design will be discussed in detail.
After this meeting, you should prepare an abstract in your own words describing your project. This abstract must be returned to your mentor for review prior to its submission to the department (generally in mid-September).
No later than the first day of exams in the fall semester, you should submit to your mentor a carefully prepared, proofread document consisting of the Introduction, the Materials and Methods section, Results (thus far), and References Cited. If you have a research mentor outside of the department, he or she should have reviewed and edited this document and the changes must be incorporated before turning submitting it.
The Masters of Science (MS) degree thesis serves as the standard to be emulated for the final Senior Thesis document.