Undergraduate Student Opportunities & Resources

Outstanding students majoring in physics may be awarded special departmental honors. Majors must complete a two-semester research project and accompanying honors thesis, present their thesis to faculty, maintain a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.5 in physics courses and 3.5 overall and meet GW's special honors requirements.

Advisors

All honors candidates must be approved by the undergraduate advisor. In addition, all honors theses will require advance approval and supervision by a faculty research advisor, who must be a member of the Department of Physics, even in cases when the project is done in another department or another institution. Other research advisors may also be engaged by mutual agreement with the student, the faculty research advisor and the undergraduate advisor.

Honors Thesis and Presentation

The honors thesis should be a significant scholarly work that expands upon the work completed for the research course. The student’s knowledge of the subject should exceed the minimum requirements of the research course and demonstrate a solid understanding of the project. The student should provide periodic reports of thesis progress to the faculty research advisor.

Every honors candidate will be required to make an open-invite presentation of the thesis. After the presentation, faculty will vote on whether to award special honors to the student.