unc neuroscience honors thesis

Honors Theses

What this handout is about.

Writing a senior honors thesis, or any major research essay, can seem daunting at first. A thesis requires a reflective, multi-stage writing process. This handout will walk you through those stages. It is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences, since their theses tend to involve more writing than projects in the hard sciences. Yet all thesis writers may find the organizational strategies helpful.

Introduction

What is an honors thesis.

That depends quite a bit on your field of study. However, all honors theses have at least two things in common:

• They are based on students’ original research.
• They take the form of a written manuscript, which presents the findings of that research. In the humanities, theses average 50-75 pages in length and consist of two or more chapters. In the social sciences, the manuscript may be shorter, depending on whether the project involves more quantitative than qualitative research. In the hard sciences, the manuscript may be shorter still, often taking the form of a sophisticated laboratory report.

Who can write an honors thesis?

In general, students who are at the end of their junior year, have an overall 3.2 GPA, and meet their departmental requirements can write a senior thesis. For information about your eligibility, contact:

• UNC Honors Program
• Your departmental administrators of undergraduate studies/honors

Why write an honors thesis?

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity This is the most compelling reason to write a thesis. Whether it’s the short stories of Flannery O’Connor or the challenges of urban poverty, you’ve studied topics in college that really piqued your interest. Now’s your chance to follow your passions, explore further, and contribute some original ideas and research in your field.

Develop transferable skills Whether you choose to stay in your field of study or not, the process of developing and crafting a feasible research project will hone skills that will serve you well in almost any future job. After all, most jobs require some form of problem solving and oral and written communication. Writing an honors thesis requires that you:

• ask smart questions
• acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers
• navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues
• develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops
• master the art of time management
• hone your argumentation skills
• organize a lengthy piece of writing
• polish your oral communication skills by presenting and defending your project to faculty and peers

Work closely with faculty mentors At large research universities like Carolina, you’ve likely taken classes where you barely got to know your instructor. Writing a thesis offers the opportunity to work one-on-one with a with faculty adviser. Such mentors can enrich your intellectual development and later serve as invaluable references for graduate school and employment.

Open windows into future professions An honors thesis will give you a taste of what it’s like to do research in your field. Even if you’re a sociology major, you may not really know what it’s like to be a sociologist. Writing a sociology thesis would open a window into that world. It also might help you decide whether to pursue that field in graduate school or in your future career.

How do you write an honors thesis?

Get an idea of what’s expected.

It’s a good idea to review some of the honors theses other students have submitted to get a sense of what an honors thesis might look like and what kinds of things might be appropriate topics. Look for examples from the previous year in the Carolina Digital Repository. You may also be able to find past theses collected in your major department or at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Pay special attention to theses written by students who share your major.

Choose a topic

Ideally, you should start thinking about topics early in your junior year, so you can begin your research and writing quickly during your senior year. (Many departments require that you submit a proposal for an honors thesis project during the spring of your junior year.)

How should you choose a topic?

• Read widely in the fields that interest you. Make a habit of browsing professional journals to survey the “hot” areas of research and to familiarize yourself with your field’s stylistic conventions. (You’ll find the most recent issues of the major professional journals in the periodicals reading room on the first floor of Davis Library).
• Set up appointments to talk with faculty in your field. This is a good idea, since you’ll eventually need to select an advisor and a second reader. Faculty also can help you start narrowing down potential topics.
• Look at honors theses from the past. The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library holds UNC honors theses. To get a sense of the typical scope of a thesis, take a look at a sampling from your field.

What makes a good topic?

• It’s fascinating. Above all, choose something that grips your imagination. If you don’t, the chances are good that you’ll struggle to finish.
• It’s doable. Even if a topic interests you, it won’t work out unless you have access to the materials you need to research it. Also be sure that your topic is narrow enough. Let’s take an example: Say you’re interested in the efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s a big topic that probably can’t be adequately covered in a single thesis. You need to find a case study within that larger topic. For example, maybe you’re particularly interested in the states that did not ratify the ERA. Of those states, perhaps you’ll select North Carolina, since you’ll have ready access to local research materials. And maybe you want to focus primarily on the ERA’s opponents. Beyond that, maybe you’re particularly interested in female opponents of the ERA. Now you’ve got a much more manageable topic: Women in North Carolina Who Opposed the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It contains a question. There’s a big difference between having a topic and having a guiding research question. Taking the above topic, perhaps your main question is: Why did some women in North Carolina oppose the ERA? You will, of course, generate other questions: Who were the most outspoken opponents? White women? Middle-class women? How did they oppose the ERA? Public protests? Legislative petitions? etc. etc. Yet it’s good to start with a guiding question that will focus your research.

Goal-setting and time management

The senior year is an exceptionally busy time for college students. In addition to the usual load of courses and jobs, seniors have the daunting task of applying for jobs and/or graduate school. These demands are angst producing and time consuming If that scenario sounds familiar, don’t panic! Do start strategizing about how to make a time for your thesis. You may need to take a lighter course load or eliminate extracurricular activities. Even if the thesis is the only thing on your plate, you still need to make a systematic schedule for yourself. Most departments require that you take a class that guides you through the honors project, so deadlines likely will be set for you. Still, you should set your own goals for meeting those deadlines. Here are a few suggestions for goal setting and time management:

Start early. Keep in mind that many departments will require that you turn in your thesis sometime in early April, so don’t count on having the entire spring semester to finish your work. Ideally, you’ll start the research process the semester or summer before your senior year so that the writing process can begin early in the fall. Some goal-setting will be done for you if you are taking a required class that guides you through the honors project. But any substantive research project requires a clear timetable.

Set clear goals in making a timetable. Find out the final deadline for turning in your project to your department. Working backwards from that deadline, figure out how much time you can allow for the various stages of production.

Here is a sample timetable. Use it, however, with two caveats in mind:

• The timetable for your thesis might look very different depending on your departmental requirements.
• You may not wish to proceed through these stages in a linear fashion. You may want to revise chapter one before you write chapter two. Or you might want to write your introduction last, not first. This sample is designed simply to help you start thinking about how to customize your own schedule.

Sample timetable

Avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. Once you’ve set goals for yourself, stick to them! For some tips on how to do this, see our handout on procrastination .

Consistent production

It’s a good idea to try to squeeze in a bit of thesis work every day—even if it’s just fifteen minutes of journaling or brainstorming about your topic. Or maybe you’ll spend that fifteen minutes taking notes on a book. The important thing is to accomplish a bit of active production (i.e., putting words on paper) for your thesis every day. That way, you develop good writing habits that will help you keep your project moving forward.

Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself

Since most of you will be taking a required thesis seminar, you will have deadlines. Yet you might want to form a writing group or enlist a peer reader, some person or people who can help you stick to your goals. Moreover, if your advisor encourages you to work mostly independently, don’t be afraid to ask them to set up periodic meetings at which you’ll turn in installments of your project.

Brainstorming and freewriting

One of the biggest challenges of a lengthy writing project is keeping the creative juices flowing. Here’s where freewriting can help. Try keeping a small notebook handy where you jot down stray ideas that pop into your head. Or schedule time to freewrite. You may find that such exercises “free” you up to articulate your argument and generate new ideas. Here are some questions to stimulate freewriting.

Questions for basic brainstorming at the beginning of your project:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• Why do I care about this topic?
• Why is this topic important to people other than myself
• What more do I want to learn about this topic?
• What is the main question that I am trying to answer?
• Where can I look for additional information?
• Who is my audience and how can I reach them?
• How will my work inform my larger field of study?
• What’s the main goal of my research project?

Questions for reflection throughout your project:

• What’s my main argument? How has it changed since I began the project?
• What’s the most important evidence that I have in support of my “big point”?
• What questions do my sources not answer?
• How does my case study inform or challenge my field writ large?
• Does my project reinforce or contradict noted scholars in my field? How?
• What is the most surprising finding of my research?
• What is the most frustrating part of this project?
• What is the most rewarding part of this project?
• What will be my work’s most important contribution?

Research and note-taking

In conducting research, you will need to find both primary sources (“firsthand” sources that come directly from the period/events/people you are studying) and secondary sources (“secondhand” sources that are filtered through the interpretations of experts in your field.) The nature of your research will vary tremendously, depending on what field you’re in. For some general suggestions on finding sources, consult the UNC Libraries tutorials . Whatever the exact nature of the research you’re conducting, you’ll be taking lots of notes and should reflect critically on how you do that. Too often it’s assumed that the research phase of a project involves very little substantive writing (i.e., writing that involves thinking). We sit down with our research materials and plunder them for basic facts and useful quotations. That mechanical type of information-recording is important. But a more thoughtful type of writing and analytical thinking is also essential at this stage. Some general guidelines for note-taking:

First of all, develop a research system. There are lots of ways to take and organize your notes. Whether you choose to use note cards, computer databases, or notebooks, follow two cardinal rules:

• Make careful distinctions between direct quotations and your paraphrasing! This is critical if you want to be sure to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. For more on this, see our handout on plagiarism .
• Record full citations for each source. Don’t get lazy here! It will be far more difficult to find the proper citation later than to write it down now.

Keeping those rules in mind, here’s a template for the types of information that your note cards/legal pad sheets/computer files should include for each of your sources:

Abbreviated subject heading: Include two or three words to remind you of what this sources is about (this shorthand categorization is essential for the later sorting of your sources).

Complete bibliographic citation:

• author, title, publisher, copyright date, and page numbers for published works
• box and folder numbers and document descriptions for archival sources
• complete web page title, author, address, and date accessed for online sources

Notes on facts, quotations, and arguments: Depending on the type of source you’re using, the content of your notes will vary. If, for example, you’re using US Census data, then you’ll mainly be writing down statistics and numbers. If you’re looking at someone else’s diary, you might jot down a number of quotations that illustrate the subject’s feelings and perspectives. If you’re looking at a secondary source, you’ll want to make note not just of factual information provided by the author but also of their key arguments.

Your interpretation of the source: This is the most important part of note-taking. Don’t just record facts. Go ahead and take a stab at interpreting them. As historians Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff insist, “A note is a thought.” So what do these thoughts entail? Ask yourself questions about the context and significance of each source.

Interpreting the context of a source:

• Who wrote/created the source?
• When, and under what circumstances, was it written/created?
• Why was it written/created? What was the agenda behind the source?
• How was it written/created?
• If using a secondary source: How does it speak to other scholarship in the field?

Interpreting the significance of a source:

• How does this source answer (or complicate) my guiding research questions?
• Does it pose new questions for my project? What are they?
• Does it challenge my fundamental argument? If so, how?
• Given the source’s context, how reliable is it?

You don’t need to answer all of these questions for each source, but you should set a goal of engaging in at least one or two sentences of thoughtful, interpretative writing for each source. If you do so, you’ll make much easier the next task that awaits you: drafting.

The dread of drafting

Why do we often dread drafting? We dread drafting because it requires synthesis, one of the more difficult forms of thinking and interpretation. If you’ve been free-writing and taking thoughtful notes during the research phase of your project, then the drafting should be far less painful. Here are some tips on how to get started:

Sort your “evidence” or research into analytical categories:

• Some people file note cards into categories.
• The technologically-oriented among us take notes using computer database programs that have built-in sorting mechanisms.
• Others cut and paste evidence into detailed outlines on their computer.
• Still others stack books, notes, and photocopies into topically-arranged piles.There is not a single right way, but this step—in some form or fashion—is essential!

If you’ve been forcing yourself to put subject headings on your notes as you go along, you’ll have generated a number of important analytical categories. Now, you need to refine those categories and sort your evidence. Everyone has a different “sorting style.”

Formulate working arguments for your entire thesis and individual chapters. Once you’ve sorted your evidence, you need to spend some time thinking about your project’s “big picture.” You need to be able to answer two questions in specific terms:

• What is the overall argument of my thesis?
• What are the sub-arguments of each chapter and how do they relate to my main argument?

Keep in mind that “working arguments” may change after you start writing. But a senior thesis is big and potentially unwieldy. If you leave this business of argument to chance, you may end up with a tangle of ideas. See our handout on arguments and handout on thesis statements for some general advice on formulating arguments.

Divide your thesis into manageable chunks. The surest road to frustration at this stage is getting obsessed with the big picture. What? Didn’t we just say that you needed to focus on the big picture? Yes, by all means, yes. You do need to focus on the big picture in order to get a conceptual handle on your project, but you also need to break your thesis down into manageable chunks of writing. For example, take a small stack of note cards and flesh them out on paper. Or write through one point on a chapter outline. Those small bits of prose will add up quickly.

Just start! Even if it’s not at the beginning. Are you having trouble writing those first few pages of your chapter? Sometimes the introduction is the toughest place to start. You should have a rough idea of your overall argument before you begin writing one of the main chapters, but you might find it easier to start writing in the middle of a chapter of somewhere other than word one. Grab hold where you evidence is strongest and your ideas are clearest.

Keep up the momentum! Assuming the first draft won’t be your last draft, try to get your thoughts on paper without spending too much time fussing over minor stylistic concerns. At the drafting stage, it’s all about getting those ideas on paper. Once that task is done, you can turn your attention to revising.

Peter Elbow, in Writing With Power, suggests that writing is difficult because it requires two conflicting tasks: creating and criticizing. While these two tasks are intimately intertwined, the drafting stage focuses on creating, while revising requires criticizing. If you leave your revising to the last minute, then you’ve left out a crucial stage of the writing process. See our handout for some general tips on revising . The challenges of revising an honors thesis may include:

Juggling feedback from multiple readers

A senior thesis may mark the first time that you have had to juggle feedback from a wide range of readers:

• your adviser
• a second (and sometimes third) faculty reader
• the professor and students in your honors thesis seminar

You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this advice. Keep in mind that some advice is better than others. You will probably want to take most seriously the advice of your adviser since they carry the most weight in giving your project a stamp of approval. But sometimes your adviser may give you more advice than you can digest. If so, don’t be afraid to approach them—in a polite and cooperative spirit, of course—and ask for some help in prioritizing that advice. See our handout for some tips on getting and receiving feedback .

Refining your argument

It’s especially easy in writing a lengthy work to lose sight of your main ideas. So spend some time after you’ve drafted to go back and clarify your overall argument and the individual chapter arguments and make sure they match the evidence you present.

Organizing and reorganizing

Again, in writing a 50-75 page thesis, things can get jumbled. You may find it particularly helpful to make a “reverse outline” of each of your chapters. That will help you to see the big sections in your work and move things around so there’s a logical flow of ideas. See our handout on  organization  for more organizational suggestions and tips on making a reverse outline

Plugging in holes in your evidence

It’s unlikely that you anticipated everything you needed to look up before you drafted your thesis. Save some time at the revising stage to plug in the holes in your research. Make sure that you have both primary and secondary evidence to support and contextualize your main ideas.

Saving time for the small stuff

Even though your argument, evidence, and organization are most important, leave plenty of time to polish your prose. At this point, you’ve spent a very long time on your thesis. Don’t let minor blemishes (misspellings and incorrect grammar) distract your readers!

Formatting and final touches

You’re almost done! You’ve researched, drafted, and revised your thesis; now you need to take care of those pesky little formatting matters. An honors thesis should replicate—on a smaller scale—the appearance of a dissertation or master’s thesis. So, you need to include the “trappings” of a formal piece of academic work. For specific questions on formatting matters, check with your department to see if it has a style guide that you should use. For general formatting guidelines, consult the Graduate School’s Guide to Dissertations and Theses . Keeping in mind the caveat that you should always check with your department first about its stylistic guidelines, here’s a brief overview of the final “finishing touches” that you’ll need to put on your honors thesis:

• Honors Thesis
• Name of Department
• University of North Carolina
• These parts of the thesis will vary in format depending on whether your discipline uses MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago (also known in its shortened version as Turabian) style. Whichever style you’re using, stick to the rules and be consistent. It might be helpful to buy an appropriate style guide. Or consult the UNC LibrariesYear Citations/footnotes and works cited/reference pages  citation tutorial
• In addition, in the bottom left corner, you need to leave space for your adviser and faculty readers to sign their names. For example:

Approved by: _____________________

Adviser: Prof. Jane Doe

• This is not a required component of an honors thesis. However, if you want to thank particular librarians, archivists, interviewees, and advisers, here’s the place to do it. You should include an acknowledgments page if you received a grant from the university or an outside agency that supported your research. It’s a good idea to acknowledge folks who helped you with a major project, but do not feel the need to go overboard with copious and flowery expressions of gratitude. You can—and should—always write additional thank-you notes to people who gave you assistance.
• Formatted much like the table of contents.
• You’ll need to save this until the end, because it needs to reflect your final pagination. Once you’ve made all changes to the body of the thesis, then type up your table of contents with the titles of each section aligned on the left and the page numbers on which those sections begin flush right.
• Each page of your thesis needs a number, although not all page numbers are displayed. All pages that precede the first page of the main text (i.e., your introduction or chapter one) are numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages thereafter use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).
• Your text should be double spaced (except, in some cases, long excerpts of quoted material), in a 12 point font and a standard font style (e.g., Times New Roman). An honors thesis isn’t the place to experiment with funky fonts—they won’t enhance your work, they’ll only distract your readers.
• In general, leave a one-inch inch margin on all sides. However, for the copy of your thesis that will be bound by the library, you need to leave a 1.25-inch margin on the left.

How do I defend my honors thesis?

Graciously, enthusiastically, and confidently. The term defense is scary and misleading—it conjures up images of a military exercise or an athletic maneuver. An academic defense ideally shouldn’t be a combative scene but a congenial conversation about the work’s merits and weaknesses. That said, the defense probably won’t be like the average conversation that you have with your friends. You’ll be the center of attention. And you may get some challenging questions. Thus, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing yourself. First of all, you’ll want to prepare 5-10 minutes of opening comments. Here’s a good time to preempt some criticisms by frankly acknowledging what you think your work’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are. Then you may be asked some typical questions:

• What is the main argument of your thesis?
• How does it fit in with the work of Ms. Famous Scholar?
• Have you read the work of Mr. Important Author?

NOTE: Don’t get too flustered if you haven’t! Most scholars have their favorite authors and books and may bring one or more of them up, even if the person or book is only tangentially related to the topic at hand. Should you get this question, answer honestly and simply jot down the title or the author’s name for future reference. No one expects you to have read everything that’s out there.

• Why did you choose this particular case study to explore your topic?
• If you were to expand this project in graduate school, how would you do so?

Should you get some biting criticism of your work, try not to get defensive. Yes, this is a defense, but you’ll probably only fan the flames if you lose your cool. Keep in mind that all academic work has flaws or weaknesses, and you can be sure that your professors have received criticisms of their own work. It’s part of the academic enterprise. Accept criticism graciously and learn from it. If you receive criticism that is unfair, stand up for yourself confidently, but in a good spirit. Above all, try to have fun! A defense is a rare opportunity to have eminent scholars in your field focus on YOU and your ideas and work. And the defense marks the end of a long and arduous journey. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments!

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Atchity, Kenneth. 1986. A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision Through Revision . New York: W.W. Norton.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. 2014. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing , 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Lamott, Anne. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . New York: Pantheon.

Lasch, Christopher. 2002. Plain Style: A Guide to Written English. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Departmental Awards

Below are awards presented annually by the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience to faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates. Award announcements, including instructions on how to apply, are made to applicable departmental listservs. If you have a question on a specific award, please contact the point person listed for that award.

Awards for Anyone

• Purpose: Several awards will be given to departmental members across faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral scholar, research staff, and administrative staff member within our department who have each made significant, innovative, and impactful contributions to enhancing equity and inclusivity in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience. The award will recognize individuals with outstanding accomplishments and general impact in research, teaching, mentoring, and/or service and considers its significance, innovation, and impact.
• Award Amount: No cash award; recipients are honored with a plaque at a departmental awards ceremony at the end of the year.
• General Deadline: April
• Contact: Dr. Keely Muscatell

Awards for Faculty

• Purpose: The aim of the Ann Rankin Cowan Excellence Award is to provide a faculty member with seed funding to launch the innovative and meaningful early-stage research necessary to apply for external funding, thereby supporting research that can ultimately translate into clinical applications and therapeutic treatments for society. This award is made possible through the generous support of Ann Rankin Cowan (Psychology ’75).
• Award Amount: Approximately $20,000 is awarded annually to support one faculty member.
• Contact: Dr. Deborah Jones
• Purpose: The Stephenson and Lindquist Award’s purpose is to support the research activities of our faculty, through funding basic research activities, travels, consultants, guest speakers, or the development of new experimental procedures and techniques. The funds can be used to match funds from another funding source when matching funds are required. In some cases, the funds can be used to purchase equipment for an ongoing program of research.
• Award Amount: Approximately $15,000 is offered annually to support four or more faculty members.
• General Deadline: October

Awards for Graduate Students

• Purpose: The Earl and Barbara Baughman Dissertation Award is awarded annually to the top graduate student researchers within the department. The purpose of this award is to promote and support innovative dissertation research in our department and to support award recipients in completion of their dissertation projects.
• Eligibility: Advanced graduate students must have dissertations projects are underway (proposal must be defended by May 1) and who, with this award, will devote their summer to working toward completion of their dissertation project rather than accepting other employment.
• Award Amount: Two awards of $6,000 each
• General Deadline: February/March
• Contact: Dr. Charlie Wiss
• Purpose: The purpose of the Ernest C. Davenport Award is to encourage and honor graduate students from underrepresented groups who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge of psychological science. This award honors Dr. Davenport, who earned his B.S. in Psychology and Computer Science from Duke University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill. He was the first African-American to be awarded a Ph.D. at UNC’s L.L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory.
• Award Amount: $250
• General Deadline: September
• Contact: Dr. Shauna Cooper
• Purpose: The Dashiell Dissertation Startup Award honors John Frederick Dashiell, founder of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and is intended to support graduate student scientific work by assisting with research expenses.
• Eligibility: Graduate students who have passed the doctoral comprehensive exam, with preference given to those in the early stages of their dissertation research
• Award Amount: Any amount up to $1,000
• Contact: Dr. Keith Payne
• Purpose: Generous donor support to the Dashiell Research Fund allows our departmental graduate programs to support student travel to conferences. The Dashiell Student Travel Award honors John Frederick Dashiell, founder of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.
• Award Amount: Each program makes several awards of $400 – $550, depending on student interest.
• General Deadline: Fall semester
• Contact: Doctoral Program Directors
• Purpose: The purpose of the Bernadette Gray-Little Award is to encourage and honor graduate students who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge concerning issues that face diverse populations or are of concern to diverse populations. This award honors Dr. Gray-Little, who earned a B.A. in Psychology from Marywood University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Saint Louis University. She joined the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill in 1971, where her research program focused on racial/ethnic membership of clients and clinicians in the treatment of psychological disorders. Since 2009, Dr. Gray-Little has been the Chancellor of the University of Kansas, the first African American and the first woman to hold the position.
• Purpose: The Positive Psychology Science Fund seeks to support leading-edge basic and translational science to meet the increasing demand for evidence-based applications of positive psychology. This award recognizes innovative and methodologically rigorous research projects by social psychology doctoral students that have a potential impact for positive emotions research in the scientific community.
• Award Amount: Varies on the amount requested in the research proposal
• General Deadline: November
• Contact: Dr. Barbara Fredrickson

Awards for Undergraduate Students

• Purpose: The Dashiell-Thurstone Prize is awarded each year for the best senior honors thesis, as judged by a faculty committee. This award is named in memory of two significant figures in the life of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience: John Dashiell, who founded the Department in 1920, and Leon Thurstone, who founded the Psychometric Research Laboratory in 1953, which later became a significant component of the Department.
• Award Amount: No cash award; students are honored with a plaque at Spring Commencement
• General Deadline: No applications accepted; projects are reviewed and the prize awarded by a faculty committee
• Purpose: The Peele Award honors David Bray Peele, who received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill in 1975 and worked with Dr. Mark Waller on an Honor’s Thesis. He completed his graduate work at the American University in Washington and returned to North Carolina to work at the Neurotox Division at the Environmental Protection Agency. He used innovative behavioral methods in his research to demonstrate toxic effects in rats. Dr. Peele passed away suddenly in 1990 and, after his death, his family remembered how his Honors work at UNC had opened up so many opportunities for him and decided to establish a fund that would bear his name. The Peele Award supports our undergraduate students and their Honors projects.
• Award Amount: Maximum of $500 per project
• Contact: Dr. Kelly Giovanello or Dr. Kristen Lindquist
• Purpose: This award is for an undergraduate student majoring in either psychology or neuroscience and who has made exemplary service contributions. This award honors Dr. Donald Lysle who has served as Chair since 2007. Dr. Lysle completed his B.S., Magna Cum Laude; M.S. and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and has been a faculty member at Carolina since 1990. Aside from his great service as Chair of a large department for several terms, he is known, in particular, for his compassion and service for others.
• Award Amount: No cash award; students are honored with a plaque at the Chancellor’s Award Ceremony
• Eligibility: May or August graduates who are a PSYC or NSCI major
• General Deadlines: Applications must be submitted by mid-January
• Contact: Dr. Jeannie Loeb
• Purpose: The purpose of the Lindquist Undergraduate Research Award is to support and fund undergraduate research projects or to offset the costs related to presenting and publishing research. These grants are made possible by a contribution from an anonymous donor.
• Award Amount: Varies based on funding- generally between $250 and $350, awarded to several undergraduate students
• Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in PSYC 395 as well as those conducting research through other avenues in the Department
• General Deadlines: October and February
• Contact: Dr. Vicki Chanon
• Purpose: The purpose of the Susan M. McHale Award is to encourage and honor undergraduate students from underrepresented groups who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge of psychological science. This award honors Dr. McHale who earned her B.A. in Psychology from Bucknell University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. McHale’s research has investigated how gender, ethnicity/race, disability, and socioeconomic status impact family relationships and everyday experiences of youth.
• Award Amount: No cash award; students are honored at Spring Commencement
• Purpose: The purpose of the J. Steven Reznick Award is to encourage and honor undergraduate students who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge concerning issues that face diverse populations. This award honors Dr. Reznick, who earned his B.A. in Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill, M.A. from Wake Forest University, and Ph.D. from University of Colorado. Dr. Reznick made many contributions to enriching diversity in student experiences at Carolina.
• Purpose: The Reznick Diversity and Psychological Research Grant honors Dr. Reznick, a close friend and colleague in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. He was a proud alumnus of UNC Chapel Hill and served on our faculty from 1998 until his death in 2016. Dr. Reznick had a lifelong commitment to education, research, diversity, and Carolina. This Reznick Diversity Research Grant is awarded to a single undergraduate Psychology major every Spring to help offset the need for part-time work, cover the costs of carrying out research, and/or to attend a professional conference. Students must identify from an underrepresented population OR be interested in carrying out research pertinent to underrepresented populations. Learn more online .
• Award Amount: Two $2,000 awards to two students in the Spring semester

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Honors Carolina is a four-year academic program geared toward the top 10% of undergraduates at UNC and promises those students a guided journey toward a successful career and purposeful life.  It is the University's way of investing in truly exceptional students by providing academic and non-academic challenges and opportunities, both inside and outside the classroom.

From the moment they step foot on campus, our students join a diverse community of scholars and friends. Approximately 2,100 students are currently members of Honors Carolina, and enjoy access to more than 200 small courses, award-winning faculty, and priority registration. Our unparalleled commitment to global learning offers students a doorway to the world through courses, internships, and research for academic credit.

The Honors Carolina "Go Anywhere" initiative is a comprehensive plan to elevate the program's reputation among industry leaders, position it as a destination of choice for top recruiters, and prepare students to seize opportunities before them through intensive advising and coaching. In fact, our academic advisors, career coaches, and alumni mentors are with students every step of the way. Through a diverse roster of co-curricular programs, students explore their interests; prepare for life after graduation; and connect with students, faculty, alumni, and leaders around the globe. Some enrolling first-year students are invited to participate immediately in Honors Carolina. Other students may apply to the program at the beginning of their second semester or first year of study. Details of the application process are available on the  Honors Carolina  website. Honors Carolina students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.000 or higher and complete a minimum number of honors credit hours by graduation in order to receive the “Honors Carolina Laureate” distinction on their transcript.

To graduate from the University with  honors or highest honors , students must complete a senior thesis in their academic major. Senior honors thesis programs are offered in nearly 50 departments, curricula, and professional schools throughout the University. Interested students should consult with the honors advisor in their major about department-specific requirements.

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The Thrill of Discovery

You don’t have to conduct much research to learn that Eleanor Brightbill loves science. She always has.

Shortly after she arrived in Chapel Hill, Eleanor jumped at the opportunity to get involved in undergraduate research. She began working at a neuroscience lab with Professor Donita Robinson, using rats to study how alcohol affects the brain.

A Taylor Fellowship enabled Eleanor to expand her research activities the summer following her sophomore year. She worked full-time as a research assistant at a NC State lab that was collaborating with Professor Robinson. Together, they studied the dopamine system in hopes of better understanding issues such as addiction and depression.

The experience provided Eleanor with significant research responsibilities and opened her eyes to the importance of collaboration between professors and universities. It also reinforced what she always suspected: she wanted to spend her career focused on analytical research.

“At the time, I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to major in,” Eleanor says. “It solidified for me that I wanted to focus on chemistry.”

At the end of her Taylor Fellowship, Eleanor remained actively involved in undergraduate research. She has spent the past year working in Professor Scott Warren’s lab focused on discovering new 2D materials from naturally occurring minerals and is currently completing a senior honors thesis.

When the senior from Sanford, NC graduates in May, she will enter graduate school and begin her pursuit of a PhD in materials chemistry.

“Get involved in research early on,” she says. “It helped me figure out what I wanted to do and what other opportunities I wanted to check out.”

Eleanor says the breadth of experiences that UNC afforded her were pivotal in helping her figure out what she wanted to do. “College is a great time to explore. Do whatever you find interesting, even if you don’t know where it might lead.”

Visit UNC’s Office for Undergraduate Research

The UNC Office for Undergraduate Research is an excellent resource to help students identify research opportunities and learn more about the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program .

Apply for A Senior Honors Thesis Research Grant

Grants up to $500 are available to offset costs associated with Senior Honors Thesis projects.  Learn more.

Golding Fund

The Golding Fund for Study of Slavery and the African American Experience provides financial support to promote undergraduate research on slavery and the African American experience from the early 17th through the late 19th centuries.

INVEST IN OUR STUDENTS

• UNC Libraries
• Subject Research
• Finding Theses and Dissertations
• Finding UNC Theses & Dissertations

Finding Theses and Dissertations: Finding UNC Theses & Dissertations

Dissertations, master's papers, undergraduate honors theses.

• Finding Other Theses & Dissertations
• Borrowing & Purchasing

The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library has paper copies of MOST UNC Chapel Hill theses and dissertations, including many of those from Health Affairs, and also the only copies of some pre-1930 dissertations and theses. The NCC's copies do not circulate and are not in an area open for browsing. You can assume that the NCC will probably have a copy of a UNC-Chapel Hill dissertation or thesis even if the catalogs do not reveal this.

Davis Library has circulating copies of many theses and dissertations completed at UNC-Chapel Hill. The Health Sciences Library has copies of the theses and dissertations completed in Health Affairs departments. Some dissertations and theses are also located in the Library Service Center and can be requested through the Carolina BLU Campus Delivery Service . Most UNC-Chapel Hill theses and dissertations can be found in the online catalog .

• Dissertation - Presents original research and is written as part of the requirements for obtaining a doctorate.
• Thesis - Presents original research and is written as part of the requirements for obtaining a master's degree.
• Master's Paper - Some master's programs at UNC do not have an official "thesis" but rather require a major paper or report.
• Undergraduate Honors Thesis - Written and defended by Honors Carolina undergraduate students in order to graduate with Honors or Highest Honors.

The Carolina Digital Repository also provides access to digital copies of theses and dissertations completed at UNC-Chapel Hill. It is an open-access source that houses user-submitted theses and dissertations and also other works by instructors and researchers affiliated with UND-Chapel Hill. However, as it houses works besides theses and dissertation and is relatively new, it may not pull up older works.

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global Indexes US dissertations from 1861 with full text available from 1997; masters theses covered selectively including some full text. Citations for dissertations from 1980 include 350-word abstracts, while masters' theses from 1988 have 150-word abstracts. Selectively covers dissertations from Great Britain and other European universities for recent years. In addition to this database, the full text of the majority of UNC theses and dissertations from 2006, and all beginning in 2008, are freely available electronically from the UNC Library: Dissertations | Theses more... less... Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. Coverage: 1861 to present
• Dissertations & Theses @ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Dissertations & Theses@University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides indexing and some full text access to dissertations completed here at Chapel Hill and submitted to the Dissertations Abstracts database. more... less... Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. Coverage: 1920s to present

Most UNC dissertations are in the UNC-CH catalog. If searching for a known author or title, searching the  online catalog  is the most efficient way to search: A sample search: title =  "Chaucer's relative constructions"

You can also use the  Boolean Search  feature of the  Advanced UNC-CH Catalog  to perform Keyword Searches for UNC dissertations.

Conducting a Keyword Search for Dissertations

Although most dissertations are in the online catalog, dissertations before 1964 have no subject headings. Searching for key words in the titles will help get at "subjects" for these items. Do not use ONLY standard LC Subject Headings. Be creative with appropriate key words, synonyms, and variants as well.

You will be searching for "thesis phd or thesis ph d" , which will appear as a note in the catalog record. You can use subject headings, title words, an author's last name, etc., and add "and thesis phd or thesis ph d". It is advisable to enter the "phd" both ways because of spacing variations. A sample search:

shakespeare and (thesis phd or thesis ph d) and "north carolina"

However, as noted above, Dissertations & Theses is the most efficient way to search for dissertations on a topic. If you do search for dissertations in the online catalog, you should add  "and north carolina" to try and weed out dissertations from other schools, but this can lead to false drops and omissions.

Finding Theses

While some theses may be found in Dissertations & Theses , thesis coverage is not nearly as comprehensive as dissertation coverage in that database.

Most UNC theses are in the UNC-CH catalog. If searching for a known author or title, searching the online catalog is the most efficient way to search. A sample search: title = Spenser and the diction of allegory : some uses of wordplay in the Faerie Queene

The online catalog does not offer an easy way to limit a subject search to master's theses. There is no group subject heading or subheading like "theses" for them. You can also use the Boolean Search feature of the Advanced UNC-CH Catalog to perform Keyword Searches for UNC theses.

Conducting a Keyword Search for Theses

Although most theses are in the online catalog, theses both before 1967 and after around 1990 have no subject headings. Searching for key words in the titles will help get at "subjects" for these items. Do not use ONLY standard LC Subject Headings. Be creative with appropriate key words, synonyms, and variants as well.

You will be searching for "thesis ma" or "thesis m a," which will appear as a note in the catalog record. You can use subject headings, title words, an author's last name, etc., and add "and thesis ma or thesis m a". It is advisable to enter the "ma" both ways because of spacing variations. A sample search:

shakespeare and (thesis ma or thesis m a) and "north carolina"

Finding Master's Papers

Some departments do not have an official thesis but instead require a major paper or report. These papers and reports are not in Davis Library or, for the most part, in the North Carolina Collection or the Libraries' online catalog. Some departments and departmental libraries have online lists. Contact the department, or, if there is one, the departmental library for information.

Environmental Sciences and Engineering Master's level students in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering can opt for one of four tracks: a Master of Science degree, which requires a thesis; and the Master of Science in Public Health, Master of Public Health, and Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, which require a technical report. Theses are uploaded as digital copies to the Graduate School, and technical reports are uploaded to the Carolina Digital Repository.

Public Administration Copies of the Master of Public Administration papers from 1976-1994 are in the North Carolina Collection . For copies of papers completed since 1994, contact the Manager of the Master of Public Administration Program (Knapp-Sanders Bldg., CB# 3330, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3330, Phone: 919-966-5381, Fax: 919-962-0654, Email Contact Form ).

UNC-Chapel Hill Master's Paper Collection Full-text copies of master's papers can be found:

• UNC-Chapel Hill Master's Paper Collection more... less... Access: No restrictions.

This database contains papers completed for the following departments:

• City & Regional Planning: Coverage from May 2002 - present
• Information & Library Science: Coverage from May 1999 - present*
• Maternal & Child Health: Coverage from December 2010 - present
• Public Health & Public Health Leadership: Coverage from August 2011 - present

*Print copies from 1963 - present are available in the  SILS Library .

Finding Undergraduate Honors Theses

Undergraduate Honors Theses (through 2012) are in the North Carolina Collection. They can be found using the card catalog located in that collection or the online catalog. They do not have subject headings unless they are about North Carolina. They do not circulate. Some departmental libraries also have copies but these are also non-circulating. To determine if a copy of an honors thesis can be obtained, contact the North Carolina Collection .

Electronic Submission of Senior Honors Theses:

Beginning in Fall 2013, students will no longer submit paper copies of their senior honors theses for archiving in the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Instead, they will submit theses electronically via the Carolina Digital Repository (CDR). Submissions are due by the last day of class in the semester in which students complete their theses. The University Library will catalog electronic theses and make them available to the public.

To find Undergraduate Honors Theses in the catalog you can also use the Boolean Search feature of the Advanced UNC-CH Catalog to perform Keyword Searches. Do a keyword search for "honors essay" (with quotation marks) and then limit your search results to "North Carolina Collection" using the "Location" category in the left-hand column. A sample search: shakespeare and "honors essay" – then limit to North Carolina Collection Remember that Honors Theses lack subject indexing, so Keyword principally searches title and author fields. A thesis about Shakespeare may not have Shakespeare in the title. You can also do a catalog search for a specific title or author if known. A sample search: title = Broken emblems : allusion, irony, and utility in David Jones' In parenthesis

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• Last Updated: May 16, 2023 12:44 PM
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UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

The Developmental Personality Neuroscience Lab provides a variety of opportunities for undergraduate students interested in psychopathology research, neuroscience, or statistical methods. We also have opportunities for students with programming experience who would like to contribute to neuroimaging and methodological studies. 

We are eager to recruit highly motivated undergraduate students who can commit to working at least 2 semesters in the lab. Although most of our undergraduates participate for course credit or volunteer, we also work with students who apply for paid research fellowships. Students who wish to complete a senior honors thesis project should work in the lab at least 2 semesters prior to pursuing their thesis.

We are not currently accepting undergraduate RA applications at this time; we encourage you to check our lab website toward the end of each semester, as this is when we typically advertise open RA positions. Undergraduates who are interested in programming for our lab may fill out our CSRA application .

Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions.

GRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Thank you for your interest in joining our lab. Our graduate students have opportunities to engage in comprehensive and collaborative research and clinical training in developmental personality neuroscience. We encourage interested individuals to learn more about our graduate student opportunities through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section written by Dr. Hallquist. Dr. Hallquist will not be accepting a new graduate student for the Fall 2022 cycle.

GRADUATE STUDENT FAQs

What sort of educational background is most appropriate for our lab, what experience is appropriate for our lab, is it ok to contact you directly before applying, what do you prioritize when evaluating graduate applications, which program should applicants apply to, when will you be taking new students, research staff opportunities.

We offer in-depth research opportunities for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate level individuals.

Research Coordinator Position:

From time to time, our lab hires full-time research coordinators to oversee larger grant-funded projects. If we currently have an opening, it will be posted on our home page, including a link to apply formally through UNC’s careers page. Our research coordinators assist with the design, implementation, and administration of psychological research projects focusing on personality, neuroscience, and computational modeling. This position will coordinate and implement human subjects research following established procedures. Responsibilities include assistance with research design and protocols, data collection and management, participant recruitment and retention, lab administration, supervising undergraduates, and analysis of behavioral and neuroimaging data. An ideal candidate will have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of training and experience necessary to perform the work. The successful candidate will have excellent organizational skills, professionalism, and customer service skills. They will show willingness and ability to learn and understand research tasks. A background and experience with clinical psychology or cognitive neuroscience is preferred.

RESEARCH COORDINATOR FAQs

What project(s) would the successful candidate be involved in, how many years should a successful candidate expect to commit to this position, do you have any positions available if so, where should i apply, post-doctoral scholar position:.

Post-doctoral scholars will have ample opportunities to develop independent research projects and to publish empirical papers using existing data. Ideally, our scholars should have experience with both functional neuroimaging and the development of reinforcement learning or computational models of behavior. Postdocs will work on NIH-supported lines of research in close collaboration with Dr. Alex Dombrovski’s Decision Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. Our scholars have strong quantitative skills, experience in cognitive, social, affective, or computational neuroscience, and an interest in decision-making in psychopathology. We offer opportunities to develop and lead new research within the broader aims of the lab and guidance in obtaining independent funding. The lab environment is highly collaborative and postdocs have the opportunity to learn reinforcement learning modeling and functional imaging techniques.

POST-DOCTORAL SCHOLAR FAQs

What projects will the successful applicant be involved in and what will they be responsible for.

• UNC Chapel Hill

Researchers Show How Neurochemicals Affect fMRI Readings

A landmark study, led by Yen-Yu Ian Shih, PhD, professor of neurology and associate director of UNC’s Biomedical Research Imaging Center, could alter how researchers interpret results from functional magnetic resonance imaging. Original article can be found here.

Hahn Awarded CZI Grant to Monitor, Manipulate Proteins Important in Nervous System Function, Neurological Disease

Klaus Hahn, PhD, the Ronald G. Thurman Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine, will co-lead this Chan Zuckerberg Initiative project with colleagues at Duke University and North Carolina State University. Full article found here.

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Biologists Celia Shiau and En Yang at UNC-Chapel Hill have been awarded a competitive Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) grant to tackle unsolved grand challenges in neurodegenerative diseases and fundamental neuroscience. The awards were announced on Feb. 21. Shiau is an associate professor and Yang is an assistant professor in the department of biology in UNC’s College of Arts … Read more

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In an effort five years in the making, UNC School of Medicine cell biologist Sarah Cohen, PhD, and Rockefeller University’s Ian Windham, PhD, describe the interplay between fats and proteins in brain cells and how their dysfunction contributes to the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Full article found here.

Hiroyuki Kato awarded Eagles Autism Funded Project

Eagles Autism Foundation contributes $6.2 million to fund 34 research and community projects. The Eagles Autism Foundation has announced that 34 projects specializing in cutting-edge autism research and care will receive $6.2 million in funding. The grants are a direct result of the proceeds raised by participants from the 2023 Eagles Autism Challenge, in addition to other … Read more

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A UNC senior's one-man show explores experiences as a second-generation Korean American

Every December , Ivy League-hopeful high school seniors open their laptops, shakily type in their usernames and passwords and click a button that will determine the next four years of their lives.

Many will see a rejection, others a confetti-decorated screen — and some, like UNC senior Ethan Kim , are notified that their application will be held for further review.

Four years ago , Kim, a Charlottean ,   decided to respond to his deferral from Harvard University with a rap titled “ Harvard Please Let Me In .” The video gained over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

“But the reality was I didn't even want to get in that bad,” Kim said .

It wasn't the first time he used rap in an academic setting. I n high school , he was one of the few underclassmen who helped make a diss track against a rival school to raise awareness for a canned food drive.

“I think he's always been a performer at his heart, whether it's social groups or when we met through speech and debate,” UNC senior  Hunter Kouchi , Kim’s friend and roommate, said .

A second-generation Korean American, Kim said his parents encouraged him and his brother to pursue what they loved as they were growing up. He said he felt like he was able to escape some of the traditional immigrant pressure to be a doctor or a lawyer because of his parents' support. 

For his performance studies  senior honors thesis , Kim will perform a one-man show titled “The Dishwasher: soap, sponge, scrub," which explores the Asian American experience through his and his parents’ eyes.

Performance dates include  March 25, 26 and April 2 at Swain Hall Black Box Theater.

Although Kim has dabbled in stand-up comedy under the moniker “Kurvy Korean, ” this performance will be different from his past work as it will combine comedic and heavy themes in a longer set.  

The play, a thirty-seven-page script written and produced by Kim, will touch on themes of generational trauma and what it means to do work with one’s own hands as an immigrant without generational wealth . He said the title references how many Asian families don't use the dishwasher, explaining that  immigrants are taught that everything they build needs to be by their own hands.

Joseph Megel , the director and faculty advisor for Kim’s honors thesis, described his performance style as likable , vulnerable and authentic.

“He has that gift that he can hold you in a way and then take you to places you don't expect to go,” Megel said .

Kim said he has always felt the urge to be creative, which he does through stand-up and rap. But after being formally rejected by Harvard, he said that he internally connected his creative side with failure.

Spurred by encouragement from his peers in his performance class, Kim began writing a script for his upcoming show on a whim.

However, what truly pushed Kim to pursue the script as a performance was attending the celebration of life of his close friend Carson Philbin , who died  earlier this year. Philbin was the  cinematographer  for Kim’s Harvard deferral video.

Being reminded of Philbin’s passion for pursuing creativity inspired Kim to get back on his feet as a performer.

“I like doing stand-up and it's really fun, but I want to show everyone that I'm an actor, a writer and more than just someone who can be humorous,” Kim said . “I'm a performer and that's what I want people to see.”

Kouchi, who has been Kim's roommate for the past four years, said he was fortunate enough to get a show every single day since their first year at UNC. Kim's friends, Kouchi  said , are extremely proud of him and the show he's created.

Kim said he likes material that makes audience members laugh and cry, and interwove  both aspects into his show. His director, he said, reminds him that laughter after tears comes from the gut and feels more necessary in order to overcome sadness.

Now a college senior, Kim said the performance feels like “throwing up another Hail Mary” — just like his Harvard video as a high school senior. 

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But, four years since then, when asked if Kim would trade his UNC experience for Harvard, knowing what he knows now, he said :

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

Tickets for the April 2 show are available via this  form .

@preethikaratnam

@dthlifestyle | [email protected]

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Adithi jayaraman '24 wins keasbey scholarship, posted on march 19, 2024 by nicola smith.

The psychology major is interested in the human brain and translational research.

Adithi Jayaraman ’24 has been awarded a 2024 Keasbey Scholarship to pursue a master of philosophy degree in cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University. 

Jayaraman is one of two candidates accepted this year for graduate study in the United Kingdom by the Philadelphia-based Keasbey Memorial Foundation , which was founded in the 1950s by Marguerite Keasbey in honor of her parents. 

Students are selected on a rotating basis from 12 American colleges and universities in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, including Dartmouth, Harvard, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Yale. The foundation pays a scholarship for a recipient’s tuition, fees, and living expenses for up to two years of study. 

The most recent Dartmouth student to be awarded the scholarship was Nicholas Norwitz ’18. 

Jayaraman will study psychology and cognitive neuroscience in a year-long program at Cambridge, which will put her on the road to a doctorate. Her ambition is to become a clinical psychologist, researching the neuroscience of mental illness, with a focus on policy and advocacy.

We will never understand the brain fully, and I don’t think we’re supposed to.

A psychology major and anthropology minor from New Jersey, Jayaraman “models both academic excellence and a true sense of service to others: She is courageous, reflective, and eager to continue driving change in mental health work. We are thrilled that she has received the Keasbey this year,” says Christie Harner , assistant dean of the faculty for fellowship advising.

Jayaraman sat for two Zoom calls with representatives from the Keasbey foundation: the first a group introduction with the other candidates, and the second an individual interview. Both happened to coincide with a family trip in December to see her maternal grandparents in Chennai in southern India.

While there, she experienced both a cyclone, which cut off power to thousands, and a bout of food poisoning that almost sent her to the hospital. The interviews began at 2 a.m. local time. Her older sister put makeup on her so she didn’t look as ill as she felt, and found a formal shirt for her to wear because Jayaraman had forgotten to bring one.

“Just let me get through it,” she told herself, resigning herself to a rejection. Instead, she learned in December that she was one of the two finalists.

“Adithi is a phenomenal student. But what really made her stand out was her willingness to tackle tough issues and topics in a thoughtful, honest, and empathetic way,” says Margaret Funnell , Guarini ’97, the director of Undergraduate Advising and Research and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences , who taught Jayaraman in the classroom.

The brain’s intricate mechanisms have fascinated Jayaraman since she was young. “I always knew I wanted to study the brain,” she says. An MRI image of a brain functions as her computer’s screen saver. She has also relished her study of anthropology, which meshes with her interest in “understanding humans and how we behave.”

She is interested in the relatively recent field of translational research, which seeks to translate basic research findings into concrete practices that benefit humans.

Given the stigma of mental illness and the continuing challenges in treating various psychiatric disorders, “we want to make sure we’re classifying diseases in the best way for the best treatment,” Jamarayan adds.

She takes particular pleasure in reading functional MRI imaging, which measures the activity of the brain as it performs a function or looks at a specific image. “It’s such a cool machine. That’s why I love the brain; it underlies our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.” 

When Jayaraman is not studying or working, she watches Netflix ( Fleabag is a favorite), listens to music—ABBA, the Beatles, Queen—and observes the people around her. “And sometimes you just need to pause and not do anything,” she says.

While it is important to understand the brain and its functions, and there is so much more to learn, Jamarayan says, “We will never understand the brain fully, and I don’t think we’re supposed to. Some parts are meant to remain uncharted. The brain is a beautiful mystery that doesn’t need to be touched.”

 More information about the Keasbey and other awards are available through the Fellowship Advising Office .