Senior Research and Honors Program
Seniors can receive credit for senior research in biology by completing the BIOL 99 petition and meeting with the biology honors coordinator at the beginning of the fall semester of their senior year. Once the petition is approved, candidates must enroll in BIOL 99a and 99b (or one of these and BIOL 93) to carry out a senior research project and submit and defend a thesis.
All faculty mentor students for their senior research projects which range across the fields of faculty expertise. Project examples include:
- the sequencing of RNAs as they vary through the circadian rhythm in drosophila
- quantification of neural responses in ferrets to visual motion
- human memory and speech recognition.
Students typically work in the corresponding lab long before their final year, and thus have the opportunity to create and present a scientific poster based on their research to the Brandeis community at SciFest in the summer between their junior and senior years.
Additional details about the Biology Senior Honors program, including the petition, can be found in the University Bulletin.
Apply for Senior Honors
Applying to Senior Honors (BIOL 93, 99 and 199) is now online. Use your UNET ID and password to log into this FileMaker-based function. Information about the application process and program requirements is also available: BIOL93, BIOL99/199.
A Sample of Past Theses
What is in a senior honors thesis? The Brandeis Institutional Repository (BIR) contains the Senior Honors Theses that have been submitted to the BIR over the years. Since this repository contains the senior honors theses from across the campus, use the "search within this collection" option to narrow your search.