Honors Program Print E-mail

Purpose
The Chemistry Honors Program is aimed toward outstanding chemistry majors and is designed to enhance the students’ problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills. The program provides an excellent preparation for graduate school or professional careers.

Benefits
In addition to the benefits associated with a mentoring program that fosters a spirit of inquiry, independence, and initiative and integrates the student’s prior course work into a working knowledge of chemistry in the laboratory, the student who completes the program will graduate “With Honors in Chemistry.”

Eligibility
Acceptance into the Chemistry Honors Program requires the student to have:
  • earned a 3.25 GPA in required chemistry courses attempted;
  • earned a 3.0 GPA overall;
  • completed the following courses: CH 115, CH 114 or CH 116, CH 117, CH 118 or CH 119,
  • CH 235, CH 234 or CH 236, CH 237, and CH 238 or CH 239;
  • arranged with a faculty mentor to do a research project in chemistry; and
  • submitted the honors program application form and a one-page honors research proposal to the Chemistry Honors Director.

Requirements
Students in the Chemistry Honors Program will be required to have the following:
  • approval of the Chemistry Honors Director;
  • completion of 6 semester hours of undergraduate research CH 497;
  • enrollment in Honors Thesis, CH 499, requiring a senior thesis written in ACS format for a scientific paper; and
  • an oral presentation and defense of the thesis before the student’s Honors Research Committee.
Where appropriate, the Honors Committee may recommend that chemistry honors students make a formal presentation of their work at the annual meeting of the Alabama Academy of Science or a regional or national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Contact
For more information and/or admission to the Chemistry Honors Program, contact:

Dr. Gary Gray, Director of the Department of Chemistry Honors Program,
Chemistry Building, Room 201, Birmingham, AL 35294-1240;
Telephone (205) 934-8094; e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .