"The Senior Honors Thesis is the culmination of a student's participation in The Honors College at the University of Arizona. It is intended to be a personalized research experience in which a student explores a concept while incorporating the knowledge or investigative techniques learned during his or her undergraduate career.

It is expected that the student obtain a level of depth within the thesis topic equivalent to a point between a large undergraduate research paper and a Master's thesis. Not only should the thesis synthesize and build upon existing scholarship, but it should also further the discipline's understanding of the subject in some way."

A Senior Honors Thesis in Biology, Bioinformatics or Ecology and Evolutionary Biology requires planning and preparation.  We have a comprehensive guide for you here and you can also visit https://frankehonors.arizona.edu/academics/thesiscapstone for details on every aspect of the process. 

We encourage you to develop your plan in your junior year by narrowing down your areas of academic and professional interest and engaging with faculty. By the end of the junior year, you should have a well-developed thesis plan that you can implement in your senior year and submit as your Honors Prospectus. By the start of the first semester of your senior year, you enroll for credit (ECOL 498H) and engage in your research project. During your second semester of credit you touch up your research project, write your thesis, present your poster, and submit your thesis.

The EEB Department requires Honors Thesis units (ECOL 498H) to cover a topic related to the major. However, we do not require that your Faculty Mentor be a member of the EEB department. Topic relevance and appropriate level of rigor (judged by student’s intellectual contribution and original data collection + analysis) are evaluated by our Program Coordinator upon submission of the Independent Study/Directed Research Proposal form used to enroll in ECOL 498H units.  The level of rigor of the Senior Honors Thesis necessitates three units of Departmental Honors credit per semester, taken in the senior year. Under no circumstances will students be permitted to complete all six-thesis units in a single semester.