Departmental Honors
What are Departmental Honors Programs?
Honors College students can participate in Departmental and College honors programs, in addition to their living-learning programs. Departmental honors programs typically involve working closely with a faculty mentor on an independent research or scholarly project culminating in a thesis. There is a minimum GPA requirement, upper level course requirements and an Honors thesis project. Departmental honors programs are a powerful way for students to experience innovative research and discovery in their field of interest. Admission to departmental honors programs varies by college/department. Students should contact the departmental honors program for more information.
Benefits of Departmental Honors:
Students admitted to a departmental or college honors program on campus are considered members of the Honors College, whether or not they were Honors students when they entered UMD. All Honors College students have access to H-version courses offered by academic departments across campus. Students are eligible to participate in all Honors College level activities and organizations. Please check the Honors College news and calendar for upcoming events, including Honors’ famous ice cream socials! Note that individual LLP events are generally only open to students in that community.
Departmental Honors contacts
Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Ray Sedwick: Sedwick@umd.edu
African-American Studies
Dr. Ashley Newby: Anewby1@umd.edu
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Dr. Joe Sullivan: jsull@umd.edu
American Studies
Dr. Asim Ali: aali@umd.edu
Anthropology
Dr. Stephen Brighton: sbrighto@umd.edu
Art
Dr. Cy Keener: ckeener@umd.edu
Art History & Archeology
Dr. Maryl Gensheimer: gensheim@umd.edu
Astronomy
Dr. Melissa Hayes-Gehrke: mhayesge@umd.edu
Bioengineering
Dr. Kimberly Stroka: kstroka@umd.edu
Behavioral and Community Health
Dr. Kerry M. Green: greenkm@umd.edu
Biology
Dr. Alexa Bely: abely@umd.edu
Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
Dr. Louisa Wu: louisa@umd.edu
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Dr. Jason Kahn: jdkahn@umd.edu
Communication
Dr. Leah Waks: leahwaks@umd.edu
Computer Science
Dr. Dave Levin: dml@cs.umd.edu
Dr. Leilani Battle: leilani@cs.umd.edu
Criminology & Criminal Justice
Dr. Wade Jacobsen: wcj@umd.edu
Dr. Robert Brame: rbrame@umd.edu
Economics
Dr. Sergio Urzua: surzua@umd.edu
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ms. Kathryn Weiland: Kweiland@umd.edu
Dr. Donald Yeung: Yeung@umd.edu
Engineering
Dr. Wesley Lawson: Lawson@umd.edu
English
Dr. Julius Fleming: flemingj@umd.edu
Entomology
Dr. Karin Burghardt: kburghar@umd.edu
Environmental Science and Policy
Dr. Mark Carroll: mcarroll@umd.edu
Family Science
Dr. Mia Smith-Bynum: msbynum@umd.edu
French
Dr. Hannah Wegmann: hwegmann@umd.edu
Geology
Dr. John Merck: jmerck@umd.edu
Germanic Studies
Dr. Josh Alvizu: jalvizu@umd.edu
Government & Politics
Dr. John McCauley: mccauley@umd.edu
Hearing & Speech Sciences
Dr. Matthew Goupell: goupell@umd.edu
History
Dr. Clare Lyons: clyons@umd.edu
Human Development
Dr. Melanie Killen: mkillen@umd.edu
Kinesiology
Dr. Tim Kiemel: kiemel@umd.edu@umd.edu
Linguistics
Dr. Tonia Bleam: tbleam@umd.edu@umd.edu
Mathematics
Dr. Larry Washington: lcw@umd.edu@umd.edu
Neuroscience
Dr. Nikolas Francis: cortex@umd.edu
Physics
Tom Woycheck-Gleason: tgleason@umd.edu
Psychology
Dr. Mike Dougherty: mdougher@umd.edu@umd.edu
Sociology
Dr. Linda Moghadam: moghadam@umd.edu
Spanish & Portuguese
Dr. Ryan Long: rlong12@umd.edu
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Dr. Neda Atanasoki: natanaso@umd.edu
Gwen Warman: gwarman@umd.edu
Honors Research Grants
Departmental or college honors program students may apply for a one-time, need-based honors research grant of $500 to help support research for an individual senior thesis or travel to a professional conference related to the thesis. Selection of recipients is based on academic merit, quality of supporting materials and financial need. Learn more about Honors research grants.
Honors Option Courses
Students in department or college Honors programs have the option to develop an Honors Option (H-Option) course if they are unable to take a Departmental Honors course required to complete the Honors degree. An H-Option student enrolls in a non-Honors course and creates an Honors-quality addendum to the syllabus. Students need permission from their Honors program advisor and the Honors College for the Honors Option course. Learn more about Honors Option courses.