CHM 298 Assignment #9 (Due Friday, March 17 by 5:00)

Dissertation Abstracts

This assignment will require a trip to the libaray (and possibly perusal through several books) so plan accordingly.

As part of receiving a graduate degree, most students write a thesis (for a masters degree) or a dissertation (for a doctoral degree). Information about students receiving advanced degrees, as well as the abstracts of their works, are compiled in dissertation abstracts. For this assignment, you will be requried to locate information in dissertation abstracts.

1. Find the person assigned to you and their year of graduation (see the table below).

2. Go to the library, and locate dissertation abstracts.

3. Locate the assigned person in the corresponding index. Be sure you are using the science and engineering index and not the social science index. The indexes for the respective years are usually located in the May-June issue. You will probably have to look at least one ahead; for someone graduating in 1999 start checking the indexes in 2000. The indexes list names in alphabetical order and will tell you which volume and page number contains the abstract itself.

4. Using the volume and page number, loacate the abstract. Be sure that you are looking in the correct volume. (The volume number should match that of the index that you used).

5. For your resport, answer each of the following questions:

a. At what institution was the degree awarded?

b. Who was the supervising professor of the work?

c. What was the title of the dissertation?

d. Are there any "key words" associated with the dissertation? If so, what are they?

As always, let me know if you run into any problems. Have fun!