Mentored Research Experience

CI 706 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

All students are required to complete a thesis at the end of the mentored research experience.  The research is conducted at an HMS-affiliated hospital, where the student's HMS faculty mentor maintains principal responsibility for the conduct of all aspects of the research.  With rare exception, all mentors are at the Assistant Professor or higher rank.  Prospective mentors are reviewed and approved by the program to ensure an appropriate research and training environment.  Based on the individual student's needs and objectives, and with the approval of the MMSCI Program, his/her research may be conducted in collaboration with faculty from other entities within or outside Harvard University; however, the HMS faculty mentor remains fully responsible for oversight of the student's research project.
The thesis requirement options are: (1) two first-author manuscripts of original research that are submitted to a peer-reviewed journal; or (2) an extensive document describing the body of work completed by the student during matriculation.  Students are required to give a public presentation of their work (i.e., oral thesis defense).  Approval of the thesis and oral thesis defense by the student's thesis committee is a requirement for completing the program.
The thesis requirements must be completed under the direct supervision of a thesis committee, consisting of  the primary mentor, one external content member (i.e. someone who is not in the student's primary laboratory and who is not directly involved in the student's research) and a MMSCI program representative. The names and contact information for the thesis committee members must be approved by the Program Director prior to the commencement of the mentored research experience.
The thesis committee is required to meet four times throughout the two-year program, with the final meeting consisting of the public oral thesis defense. The student is responsible for coordinating each progress meeting and for submitting a progress report to the Program Director after the completion of each meeting. The presence of an external expert in the student's area of research is required at the public oral thesis defense.
Upon completion of the oral thesis defense and approval of the thesis, the student is required to upload a pdf of the thesis on the Harvard University DASH database via the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation platform.  A copy of the thesis is archived in print form in the Countway Library.