MEMO TO: My research students
FROM: Charles W. Holliday
SUBJECT: My expectations of students enrolled in Biol. 401-404, Independent Research, and Biol. 495-496, Thesis
Sometimes, in the rush to complete the registration process, students enrolled in Independent Research or Thesis forget the goals we have developed in defining the research project to be done. As you will remember, I view our interaction as a symbiotic one: you will provide a keen mind, enthusiasm and an extra set of hands while I will offer guidance to you in the design and conduct of the experiments and in the interpretation of the data. You will learn biology by doing it and I will be able to do more research than would otherwise be the case. If the final results justify it, we will submit them together for publication and/or present them at a scientific meeting. Aside from the special requirements regarding the production and defense of a thesis, I make no distinction between my Independent Research and Thesis students; we are all, I hope, here for the joy of research and there are no second class citizens in my lab.
This memo will serve as a formal statement of the general goals I have for each of my research students. You will be expected to achieve these goals and to follow the timetables below.
Independent Research
This course can be taken for up to four semesters. Only in certain cases do I encourage students to take more than two semesters. I expect the following from my students in this course:
- That you will clearly define your research project by the end of the first three weeks of classes and that you will, by that time, submit to me a typed, double-spaced research proposal containing an introduction, statement of the problem to be investigated and proposed experiments.
- That you will maintain your research animals in excellent health by feeding them, checking their aquaria and removing dead or dying animals three times each week. There is no point in doing physiological research on sick animals.
- That you will spend, on average, 8-10 hours per week on the research project. This will include time spent in the lab, reading the literature, etc..
- That you will meet with me at least weekly to discuss your progress and any problems you may have.
- That you will, by the end of the eighth week of classes, submit to me a survey of the recent literature in your area of investigation; this will be 5-10 typed, double-spaced pages and will, in all probability, serve as the "Introduction" and some of the "Discussion" in your final paper.
- That you will be an active participant in our research group "Journal Club", in which students will present current research papers from the literature to the group for criticism and discussion, probably at lunch once every two weeks.
- That you will submit first, second and, if necessary, third drafts of the final research paper on your project and that you will cheerfully listen to and act upon reasonable criticism of the paper. The final research paper (composed of Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Literature Cited sections) will be 10-20 typed, double-spaced pages; a paper is due at the end of EACH SEMESTER of Biol 401-404 in which you are enrolled.
Thesis (for graduation with Honors in Biology)
In addition to all of the desiderata above, I expect the following of my Thesis students:
- That they will inform themselves of the Departmental and College rules for honors students; there are specific requirements for minimum G.P.A. in biology (3.20) and overall G.P.A. (3.00) and there is a specific timetable to be followed, including a petition for graduation with honors.
- That they will be willing to present their preliminary results as seminars to our Journal Club at the end of the fall semester and again, just before their Thesis Defenses in the spring semester.
- That a typed thesis research proposal will be submitted for Biol 491 before the end of the first three weeks of classes in the fall semester and a thesis will be submitted for Biol. 492. This thesis will, no doubt, have several drafts and it is due in final form in middle to late April. The thesis must be approved by the Department as well as by me. Thesis students should be aware of the Department's rules, guidelines and timetable for Honors Thesis students.
You will find that our Department's
Handbook for Research Students is a gold mine of information about student research in biology at Lafayette; this manual is available from our departmental secretary.
Again, I view our relationship as a symbiotic one. It is my hope that we can do some good science together.
The picture to the right is Arcimboldo's Water, painted in 1566. The animals which make up the person are represented so accurately (unusual in a time when whales were often figured with scales and spouting water) that many of them may be identified to genus and species. However, he got the eyes wrong on the crab, Cancer pagurus.
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