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Undergraduate BA, Certificate, and Minor Programs

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

In their senior year, students majoring in Public Health may undertake an Honors Thesis. The Honors Thesis project is a two semester commitment, starting in the Fall semester and concluding in Spring.

In the Fall semester, students develop a research question and hypothesis and describe the aims for the research. They conduct a literature search and write a literature review to ensure the student understands the foundations for their research. The literature review will serve as the background section of their Honors Thesis.

In the Spring semester, students will analyze their data and write their Thesis with support from their research mentor and the Spring Honors Thesis seminar course. Students will also present their work at the Honors Thesis Symposium.

Successfully completing the thesis will earn the student Honors in Public Health on their UC Berkeley transcript if they meet department and campus guidelines.

Eligibility and Prerequisites

Public Health majors interested in completing an Honors Thesis in Public Health must meet the following requirements:

  • Be a declared Public health major
  • Earn an overall GPA of 3.5 or above at the end of their Junior year
  • Earn an Upper Division in the Major GPA of 3.5* or above at the end of their Junior year
  • Successful completion of PB HLTH 142: Introduction to Probability and Statistics in Public Health (offered Fall, Spring, Summer) by the end of Junior year
  • Successful completion of PB HLTH 150A: Introduction to Epidemiology (offered Spring only) by the end of their Junior year; PB HLTH 142 is required to be taken before or at the same time as PB HLTH 150A
  • Identify a research mentor (see Mentor and MOU requirements) and submit an application
  • Complete the thesis program with a minimum overall GPA of a 3.3 and a minimum UD in the Major GPA of a 3.5

Review the Guide to Writing your Honors Thesis by Professor Kristine Madsen, MD, MPH.

*The Upper Division in the Major GPA can be found on the Academic Progress Report (APR) on Calcentral. Go to the Public Health BA and click on the “Upper Division in the Major GPA” section.

Mentor and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Students completing an Honors Thesis in Public Health must have a research mentor with expertise in the student’s subject area. The research mentor has the ultimate responsibility for guiding the student towards the successful completion of the research, thesis, and potential publications.

Students must identify a research mentor who is affiliated with Berkeley as a faculty member (in any department, must have doctoral degree, i.e., PhD, MD, ScD) and who will guide your research. The research mentor, who must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, ScD), has the ultimate responsibility for guiding the student towards the successful completion of the research, thesis, and potential publications. From what we have found, students who were the most successful were those who had a mentor solidified before summer.

Mentors must sign an MOU stating that they will:

  • Support the student’s research
  • Read and provide feedback on the thesis
  • Meet with the student at least bi-monthly
  • Confirm that the dataset the student is analyzing will be complete by fall

Review the Mentor MOU – Public Health Honors Thesis Program and Public Health Faculty.

Honors Thesis Research Project and Examples

Students will want to work with a mentor who can support them navigating a one-year research project. Honors Thesis projects can be quantitative or qualitative in design and can involve the analysis of a research mentor’s data or data from an existing publicly available database (e.g., NHANES). Mentors must have appropriate expertise, given the student’s research question and study design. Systematic reviews are NOT allowed for an Honors Thesis.

Example Titles of Prior Undergraduate Honors Theses

  • Biofilm Formation and the MCE operons in Mycobacterium smegmatis
  • The Biological Effects of Condom Lubricants and Public Health Policy
  • Determinants of Organophosphorus Pesticide Urinary Metabolite Levels in 42-Month-Old Children Participating in the CHAMACOS Birth Cohort Study
  • The Development of Social Capital through Micro Interactions in “Safe Spaces” Clubs for Adolescent Girls in Northern Nigeria
  • DNA Sensing in Myeloid Cells
  • Environmental Associations for Onchocerciasis Prevalence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Experiences of Women with Bacterial Vaginosis and Expectations for a Lactobacillus Product
  • Implications: Focus on College Culture
  • Population Health: San Francisco Excess Deaths and 911-Medically related calls During the 2017 Labor Day Heat Wave Event
  • Prevalence and Treatment of Diabetes in Rural Tanzania
  • The Role of CIITA fusion protein in Lymphoma cancer
  • Rural vs. Urban risk and protective factors for the development of early childhood caries (ECC) in developing countries
  • Time and Degree of Saturation and Recovery from Chronic 0.1% and 0.05% Atropine Treatment in the Guinea Pig Model
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Pediatric Epilepsy: Validation of a Noninvasive, Presurgical Motor Mapping Technique

Required Courses

The Honors Thesis courses cannot be used to fulfill the Public Health Elective Units requirement. Permission codes will be provided for PB HLTH 195A and 195B enrollment.

  • Fall Semester

    PB HLTH 155A:
    Research Skills in Public Health and Medicine

    3 units, letter grade

    This applied course will help you understand how to conduct and interpret research in human health and disease, building on your knowledge of epidemiology and biostatistics. The course will provide skills in: critically reading the literature related to public-health-related research; developing a research question and a testable hypothesis; and creating an analysis plan. All students will have a hands-on guided experience analyzing data using R. This 3-unit course, taken for a letter grade, is offered in the Fall and is required for students completing an Honors Thesis.

    Students must have successfully completed PH 142 and PH 150A prior to enrolling in PBHLTH 155A. This course is a senior (term 7-8) capstone option for Public Health majors.

    PB HLTH H195A:
    Special Study for Honors Candidates in Public Health

    3 units, letter grade

    An honors degree in Public Health requires the completion of PH H195A. In the fall, students will meet with peers and the professor 1-2 times in the semester. Other time is dedicated to meeting with the mentor, research, thesis prep and writing. A permission code will be provided to students during the adjustment period.

  • Spring Semester

    PB HLTH H195B:
    Special Study for Honors Candidates in Public Health

    3 units, letter grade

    An honors degree in Public Health requires the completion of PH H195B. In the spring, students will meet with peers and the professor 3-4 times in the semester. Other time is dedicated to meeting with the mentor, research, thesis prep and writing. A permission code will be provided to students during the adjustment period.

    Students will present their work at the Honors Thesis Symposium at the end of the semester.

Application Process

Please complete the application with a signed Mentor MOU by the end of Spring semester’s finals week. This is a rolling deadline and, pending availability, students may submit an application a week prior to the start of the Fall semester. Advisors will send an email to all majors in the Spring term with any specific deadlines.

Public Health Honors Thesis Application

Honors Thesis Grading Policy

The following outlines the Honors Thesis grading policy per guidance from the UC Berkeley campus.

Students must have an overall GPA of 3.3 or higher and an Upper Division in the Major GPA of a 3.5 or higher to receive the distinction of Honors. Public Health does not issue High Honors or Highest Honors.

Honors courses must be completed before graduation in order for a student to receive honors on their diploma. In exceptional cases, due to unforeseen obstacles such as illness or limitations on access for research, instructors may consider issuing an I (incomplete) grade to individual students. This means that if the student is issued an I grade, they must also agree to postpone their graduation (i.e. change their Expected Graduation Term (EGT) to summer or fall with their College Advisor). The instructor of record and the student should be in agreement about what is required to resolve the incomplete grade. The student’s final grade (replacing the I grade) must be entered in CalCentral by the deadline to submit grades for Summer or Fall. The instructor should arrange for their student to submit their completed work with the grading deadline in mind.

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