Thesis Program Changed In Biochemical Sciences

Beginning next year, Biochemistry concentrators in the College will not be required to write a thesis to graduate with honors.

The program change, made recently upon the suggestion of the Biochemistry tutorial board, gives the Honors student the option of either writing the regular Honors thesis or taking instead a full course from a group of selected upper level courses in chemistry, biology, and physics. In the latter case, the student will of course be denied the half-course credit of Biochemical Sciences 99 allowed for the work involved in this Honors thesis.

Explaining the reasons for the change, Alwin M. Pappenheimer, Jr. '29, professor of Biology, said yesterday: "Biochemistry has become a very fashionable field of concentration in the past few years, and consequently the numbers of concentrators and Honors students have risen greatly." Pappenheimer pointed out that most Honors students prefer to write a laboratory thesis rather than a critical review of literature in the field. Consequently, in accomodating the large number of research theses, the department has felt increased pressures to meet the demands for sponsors and laboratory space.

Reduces Graduate Study

In addition to alleviating departmental pressures, Pappenheimer said, the program change is expected to help those students who intend to enter graduate school to further their work in research: "The research students will be able to circumvent the undergraduate thesis and begin much earlier on the graduate school curriculum for the Ph.D. thesis. They will be that much ahead by starting in their senior year."

The number of students that will substitute the upper level full course for the thesis will probably be small, Pappenheimer predicted, declaring that the thesis has been and will most likely continue 40 be of great popularity with the students.