Honors Contracts
You will choose a professor from the list below and will write a paper describing the general field of research of the professor, and giving particular examples of how this professor uses concepts that we cover in BCH341. All professors in this list are researchers in biochemistry related fields.The paper needs to be typed (Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica or similar font, size 11 points, single spaced), and should be between 3 and 4 pages long. Start by introducing the professor and his career (if information is available online): explain what he/she is interested in, and what type of scientific problems are the focus of their research activities. This should be ~1/2-1 page long. Then, focus on explaining how this professor uses physical chemistry in his/her research. You may start with a general statement that may (or may not) include other p. chem. topics not included in BCH 341, but then give specific examples from BCH 341 (thermodynamics and kinetics). To do this, you will have to browse the literature (see below). You don't need to read all papers, or any particular paper in its entirety. Focus on how physical chemistry is used: what concepts are used? why are they needed to solve a problem or advance our knowledge of a particular problem? What particular techniques, calculations or analysis are used? This should be the rest of your paper. Depending on the professor, you may talk about more than one paper, or focus on one particular paper in more detail.
ASU Professors (All SMS, see https://sms.asu.edu/about/people/faculty/tenuretenure-track)
Prof. Petra Fromme
Prof. Wade Van Horn
Prof. Anne Jones
Prof. Tom Moore
Prof. Kevin Redding
Prof. Marcia Levitus
Prof. Rebekka Wachter.
To start, look at the professors in the list to see what you find more interesting in terms of the science they do. Choose two so you can look at their science in more detail and make a decision on which one to focus on.
Most professors keep websites with general information about their resarch and lists of papers, but these are not always up to date. To look at their bibliography, go to ASU's libary website, click on the Databases Tab, Click on "W", and choose "Web of Science". Start by searching by Author, using the last name and initial (e.g. Fromme P*). You will need to filter papers out because many names are common. To do this, once you got the page with the list of papers, click on "organizations-enhanced" on the left side of the screen, and choose ASU. Note that a professor may have published papers using previous affiliations (in the case of Petra Fromme, you will see for example Technical University of Berlin), but we want to focus on research performed here at ASU (or in UC Berkeley in the last case).
When choosing the papers you want to discuss, consider the following:
- Look at papers where the professor is a corresponding author. In our field, this usually means the professor is the last one in the list of authors. For example, in the case of Petra Fromme, the paper "Protein Crystallization in an Actuated Microfluidic Nanowell Device" has another professor listed as corresponding author. This means that even if Dr. Fromme made a significant contribution to this work, this was done primarily by Dr. Ros and her team.
- In some cases you may find a very large number of publications, and it will be impossible to look at them all. If this is the case, focus on the last 5 years.
- Some papers are actually abstracts of presentations to conferences. Be sure you look at "articles", and not "meeting abstracts", "proceedings", or "editorial materials".
When writing your paper follow these guidelines
- You may include a figure of an equation from the paper you are describing, but provide a citation.
- Use proper grammar and spelling.
- Don't copy entire sentences from the papers you read or from any other source (including online sources). This is plagiarism, and it's a serious academic integrity violation. If not sure, always ask!
- Many of you may choose the same person. That is OK as long as you produce your own paper
- You can talk to Dr. Levitus as many times as you need, preferably during her regular office hours
Deadlines:
Note: Meeting these deadlines is an absolute requirement. If you miss a deadline your honors contract will be automatically marked as "Not Successfully Completed", with NO EXCEPTIONS. You have the whole semester to work on this, so it is up to you to organize your schedule to be sure your can meet the deadlines.
E-mail Dr. Levitus with your choice from the list above |
no later than April 3 |
E-mail Dr. Levitus with a list of articles you will focus on |
no later than April 10 |
E-mail your complete assignment |
no later than May 1 |
Your assignment will be marked as "successfully completed" if you follow all guidelines described above. Feel free to show Dr. Levitus a draft before you submit your work.