Tulane honors seniors to showcase exciting research

The Tulane Honors Program will host its inaugural Honors Thesis Forum to create a new space for Tulane seniors to share their visionary work. The four-day event will provide a platform for thesis writers from different disciplines to present the results of their research to an audience composed of faculty members, fellow honors students and local community members.

Thirteen individual presentations will take place at locations across the uptown campus from 5–8 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, through Thursday, April 19. Nine panel presentations will also be held on Sunday, April 22, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Lavin Bernick-Center (LBC).

“One of the biggest factors of why I wanted to be involved with the Honors Thesis Forum was the sense of community,” said Sierra Lear, a senior majoring in chemical engineering and neuroscience.

“We want younger students to be inspired to work on their own projects and to learn how to talk about their work, whether in a forum or in an interview setting.”

— Jake Ward, Tulane senior

“There’s this commonality that everyone loves to challenge themselves academically. Finding those like-minded students is valuable and helps you learn so much more,” she added.

Lear worked with a subcommittee helping to organize the event. She will also present her thesis on Sunday, April 22, at 1:45 p.m. in LBC’s Race Conference Room.

“I’m studying the interaction between a receptor implicated in Alzheimer’s disease and biological stress,” said Lear, who received a five-year fellowship from the National Science Foundation to continue her research in graduate school.

As an administrative aide working with the Tulane Honors Program, Jake Ward, a senior majoring in political economy and economics, also collaborated with a committee of thesis writers to coordinate the forum.

“We want younger students to be inspired to work on their own projects and to learn how to talk about their work, whether in a forum or in an interview setting.”

Exploring right-wing populist parties in Germany and the United Kingdom, Ward will discuss his thesis on Tuesday, April 17, at 6:35 p.m. in Dinwiddie Hall, Room 102.