Chemistry 180 students - please take note of Section V.
This document contains:
I. Description of the selection of the thesis committee
II. Description of how to write a Thesis Prospectus
III. Deadlines for the Spring semester
IV. Format for Written Thesis
V. Note for students completing Honors Theses
Each student completing a research thesis in the Chemistry Department will be assigned a Thesis Committee made up of three faculty members. The purpose of having a thesis committee is two fold: 1) to help guide the direction of a research project by reviewing and commenting on the thesis prospectus and 2) to participate in the evaluation of the completed project by reading the written thesis and participating in the oral thesis defense.
The Thesis Committee is made up of the research advisor and two other faculty members. The department will be responsible for assigning thesis committees trying to take into account student requests, while evenly distributing responsibilities across the faculty.
The thesis prospectus is intended to help you organize your final semester of thesis work. Writing a thesis is a big undertaking and it is important to start early so you don't get overwhelmed at the end of the year. The specific aims are several-fold:
The thesis proposal should consist of the following three sections:
The introduction of your prospectus is to be written for an audience in your general field of research, i.e. skip very general background material. It should contain a concise description of the aims and scope of your thesis project and relevant background about your specific experimental and/or theoretical approach. It should also put your project in the context of any closely related work in the scientific literature. This will require a good command of the literature directly related to your project and the introduction should make generous reference to these sources.
Describe the work you have done thus far. Present your most significant data and conclusions. This may include negative results. Assess the degree of completion of your project, specifically addressing the aims and scope described in the Introduction.
Describe any remaining experiments, calculations, and/or analysis you plan to include in your thesis. How will these contribute to your project? Is it feasible to complete this work in the time remaining?
You are responsible for making three copies of your Thesis Prospectus and turning it in to each of your committee members.
The Research Thesis should have the following format:
The thesis must be in a format suitable for binding and reproduction. For binding, the thesis copies must have a 1.5 inch left margin. Three bound copies will be made
A student writing a thesis as part of their Honors program does not submitt
a thesis prospectus nor have an oral exam with a committee of Swarthmore
faculty. All evaluation of the thesis is done by the outside examiner. The
Honors theses for the external honors examiner are due to the Chemistry
office by Noon on Monday April 14, 2008. The department
will mail theses to the outside examiners.
The Oral exam on the honors theses will be scheduled by the registrar as
part of Honors examinations.
After Honors weekend, once you have incorporated all necessary corrections/revisions,
you should give a single black and white hardcopy of the whole thesis to
the Department Administrative Assistant after final approval has been obtained
from the research advisor. In addition you should provide three copies of
any color containing pages, clearly indicating where in the thesis they
should be put. The deadline for this final hard copy of the thesis
is Noon Wedneday May 28th. You will not be permitted to graduate
if the revised thesis has not been submitted.