One educator calls the dissertation process “a rite of passage.” Students, on the other hand, might say it’s more like the third degree.
The dissertation is that dreaded requirement of intensive research, writing and oral defense through which the doctoral student must pass on the way to earning his or her third educational degree. The process may take as long as 10 years and 2,000 pages, although about half that is more like it. In many cases, a similar process is sometimes required for a master’s thesis.
The nature of the task is that each dissertation is required to contribute in a new and significant way to the general body of knowledge. Considering that American universities put forth almost 40,000 doctorates each year, one can see that being different is difficult.
University Microfilms Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., which publishes about 90 percent of America’s dissertations and some theses, counts more than 1.2 million treatises on file. Some stand out as more-shall we say-different than others.
The firm’s database workers, for fun, compile some of the strangest titles in an informal list, including the likes of the “Creep of Portland Cement Paste,” a civil engineering subject, and “Electrical Measurements on Cuticles of the American Cockroach,” which sounds like a manicurist’s nightmare. Then there is “I Am You, You Are Me: A Philosophical Explanation of the Possibility That We Are All the Same Person.”
Although most titles don’t sound absurd, even the most serious can sometimes sound amusing or bizarre. For example, a few titles from students at the University of Chicago are “Computer Simulations of Retino-Tectal Maps in Goldfish,” a biological study to show how nerves go into the brain; “Dimension 8 Operators and the Neutron Electron Dipole Moment,” a physics study on the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe; “Does Marriage Make Workers More Productive?” an economics study; and “The Primordial Lithium Abundance from Extreme Sub-Dwarfs: New Observations.”
The last is the study of the oldest stars in the galaxy, called subdwarfs. Its author, Julie Thorburn, who now holds a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics, spent five years of research, telescopic observation and interpretation in her attempt to determine the “abundances” of lithium present in the stars moments after the universe was created.
She selected the topic from among the recommendations of her adviser, Lewis Hobbs, professor of astronomy and astrophysics. As a faculty adviser, Hobbs provides direction and experience to his students, but, he noted, “the goal of the process is for the student to carry out firsthand, original, significant and important research.”
Thorburn explained that the results, which show that lithium abundances are lower in the older stars in her sample, “are consistent with what is predicted for the standard theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. It tends to confirm the simplest scenario for the creation of the elements.” She hopes her findings “will rekindle interest” in the subject.
A student’s interest in topics can be generated from unusual sources. Huang Hsin-Chien, at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design in Chicago, acknowledged with a smile that his master’s thesis was inspired by “morphing” in the movies, a technique that changes one object into another.
His work, “Use of Form Metamorphosis in Design Refinement,” included the development of a software program to enable designers to make instant product-design changes on a computer. In his demonstration program that focuses on the image of a teapot, he can select any number of design attributes, such as color, height and linear relationships, and easily manipulate an instant metamorphosis of the teapot on the screen while it rotates to reveal every changing angle.
“I really want to see the student come up with his own ideas about the problem, as well as the solution,” noted Huang’s adviser Charles Owen, a professor at the Institute of Design and director of the Design Processes Laboratory at IIT. “We differ from the science and conventional scholarly theses in that we ask them to invent something. There is always going to be a completed, finished better idea as the result of thesis work (in design).”
IIT recently began a doctoral program in design, and Huang, who is from Taiwan, is its second student, having recently completed his master’s degree.
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one source of unusual topics is the Institute of Environmental Studies.
Topics include recreation management on river corridors, folk dancing in Yugoslavia and the foraging habits of the Malayan false vampire bat.
Although some titles sound odd, there is perfect logic in the content. Take, for instance, the subject of WHAM chickens (WHAM stands for Wisconsin Hypo Alpha Mutant). The research subject at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was chicken feed, and the dissertation title was “Spontaneous High-Density Lipoprotein Deficiency Syndrome in Chickens and the Response to an Atherogenic Diet.” The study was completed in 1991, but the long-term results of the research may have important implications for understanding HDL as a cholesterol carrier and its relation to heart disease.
Faculty adviser Alan Attie, associate professor of biochemistry, explained the chance meeting of mutated chickens and the human heart. “Whenever you’re in the situation where your goal is to discover new knowledge, that presents a paradox . . . you have to be prepared for serendipity.”
In this case, the surprising findings came from Ferry Poernama, a student from Indonesia who was conducting feeding experiments in the poultry science lab. He then went to Attie for his expertise in lipid metabolism, and after conducting blood tests, unearthed “a profound deficiency of HDL,” Attie said.
“If you have a low HDL level, you are at higher risk of heart disease,” Attie noted. As a result of the unexpected discovery, the search for the genetic cause of HDL deficiency continues to move forward.
In the dissertation process, “you have to keep finding your own energy,” said Linnea Berg, who earned her doctorate in human development and social policy from Northwestern University, Evanston, in 1991. “It’s an exercise in persistence.”
University Microfilms cited findings that would bear her out. They report that up to 70 percent of doctoral students drop out before finishing their dissertations. Nevertheless, in the quantity of doctorates, the Midwest produces a bumper crop. Among the top 10 institutions nationwide with the highest numbers of doctorates awarded are the U. of I., which ranks second with 774; the University of Wisconsin (Madison only), third with 679; University of Minnesota, (Minneapolis-St. Paul only), seventh with 650; University of Michigan (no campus specified), fourth with 674; and Ohio State University (no campus specified), sixth with 660, according to the 1992 figures from the National Research Council in Washington.
Although that represents a considerable amount of work, most graduates, like Berg, are happy to have the task behind them. “It’s so good to (have it) over,” she said, “I just can’t tell you!”
