Research

We encourage all students to get involved in research as early as possible. Freshman and sophomores who are are interested in research are encouraged to find volunteer, employment, or work-study positions in one of the many research labs at Penn.

General information about lab opportunities across campus and how to get started in undergraduate research can be found on the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowship’s (CURF) website. You are strongly advised to reach out to a departmental faculty member or the Academic Office as early as possible to ensure that you are likely to gain a valuable research experience (not all labs provide an ideal environment for research training) and to facilitate identifying a suitable department co-sponsor.

After gaining some experience in their labs and having completed a minimum of one or two intermediate level Biology courses, interested students should plan to undertake an independent study project during their junior and senior years.

Non-majors with appropriate background in Biology are also welcome to apply.

Please note: Research conducted at other universities or labs that are not affiliated with Penn will not be accepted for independent study credit.

Enrolling in an independent study course

You can find the application for the Spring 2025 semester HERE. Please submit both your application and proposal by January 21st to the following LINK. The Academic Office will follow up with you before the course selection period ends to update you on the status of your application.

Please note: The application and link for the upcoming semester will be updated about a month before the semester begins.

Enrollment in an independent study course is by application. Students can develop a biology independent study project in any of the research labs at Penn. However, if the lab is not part of the biology department, you will need a faculty member in the department to act as a co-sponsor.

Independent study applications for each semester are made available in early August for the fall semester and early December for the spring. In addition to the application, you are required to submit a 1-2 page proposal describing your project and goals for the semester. The guidelines to writing a proposal can be found HERE.

Please refer to the descriptions below to determine whether your research project should be considered a BIOL 1999 or BIOL 3999/4999 independent study, and to our additional guidelines for more detailed information on independent study courses.

The department will be offering five optional workshops each semester to assist you in the course and in writing your final paper. As of Fall 2023, students who enroll in an independent study course with the intent to apply for departmental honors will need to attend at least three of these workshops to be eligible for honors.

*This requirement applies to everyone completing their independent study after Fall 2023. If you have completed BIOL 3999/4999 and have your paper ready for honors consideration prior to Fall 2023, this requirement does not apply to you.

The topics for these workshops will be:

Responsible conduct in research
How to propose/test hypotheses
Components of a research paper
How to organize and present data
Writing up your findings

BIOL 1999

BIOL 1999 (1 CU) may be counted as an elective within the General Biology Major, however there are restrictions on other electives that students may count alongside BIOL 1999. In addition, students who complete BIOL 1999 are NOT eligible to apply for honors within the major. This research course may be taken only once.

Data is typically generated by others instead of directly by student.
Includes clinically focused projects that primarily involve analysis of aggregated data.
Requires student to work with and interpret data in some novel way; must involve more than simple statistical analyses of small datasets, cataloguing, and/or basic imaging.

BIOL 3999/4999

BIOL 3999 (1 CU) and BIOL 4999 (1 CU) mark the first and second semesters of an independent study project. BIOL 4999 is typically a continuation of the work started for BIOL 3999. While concentrations require that either one or both of these courses be completed, independent study is optional for students within the General Biology Major. Students are eligible to apply for honors after completing BIOL 3999. BIOL 4999 may be taken more than once but only two credits of independent study may be counted toward the major requirements.

Data is typically generated by student in conjunction with lab mentors and peers.
Includes research paradigms involving benchwork and wet lab techniques.
Research scope must be relevant to student’s concentration (when applicable).

Departmental Honors

Students who have completed at least one semester of a BIOL 3999 independent study and have a major GPA of at least 3.25 may be eligible to apply for departmental honors.

As of Fall 2023, students are required to conduct research for more than one semester in a lab to be eligible for honors. We recommend students enroll in both BIOL 3999 and BIOL 4999. However, students who have completed a BIOL 3999 course are still eligible as long as the course was not your only semester conducting research in that lab.

Students will still be required to submit their final thesis paper for their independent study course. In addition to paper submissions, students will need to attend at least three of the five independent study workshops offered each semester as mentioned above and will also need to give a five-minute lightning talk on their research/progress at the beginning of April of their senior year.

Applications will be made available in December for graduating seniors.

Papers must be submitted before the last day of reading days to be considered for honors. There will be no deadline extensions. Theses will be read by a faculty committee who will then make a decision on awarding honors based on the research conducted (innovation, originality, etc.).

Papers that consist exclusively of literature reviews are not acceptable. Retrospective statistical analyses of data collected by others are generally not acceptable.

Students may NOT use the same work for an honors thesis in Biology and in another department, or for an undergraduate thesis and a Master’s thesis.

Please note: All decisions made by the faculty committee are final.