Who writes a thesis? Pitzer Mathematics majors will be recommended for Honors at graduation if their overall grade point average is 3.5 or above and if they satisfactorily complete a Senior Thesis of honors quality. The Senior Thesis will be approved by the student’s Pitzer Mathematics adviser and normally completed under the supervision of a faculty member at the Claremont Colleges. Otherwise, Pitzer Mathematics majors are not required to complete a thesis to obtain their degrees.
Why write a thesis? The senior thesis serves as an opportunity to develop skills in writing a formal mathematics paper, gain a deep understanding of a chosen mathematical field, and engage in the research process - essential preparation for graduate studies and future academic pursuits. Students should begin searching for a thesis adviser in the spring of their junior year and collaborate with them to explore potential research topics. While some senior theses stem from REU programs or other external experiences, students are ultimately encouraged to select a topic they will find engaging over the course of six months.
What should I do? If you are a Claremont student interested in discussing a Senior Thesis with me in or adjacent areas of topology/geometry as a First Reader or Second Reader, please feel free to contact me.
Where is the thesis template? Pitzer Senior Thesis template can be found in this Overleaf file -- adapted by using the original Harvey Mudd and Scripps Thesis TeX thesis class files. Feel free to copy the file to use for your thesis.
It might be useful to look at sample theses at the Scholarship @ Claremont or Pomona Math Thesis sites.
Thesis Students
Charlotte Richards, Honors Thesis, Pitzer College, Spring 2025
JP Walker, Senior Thesis, Scripps College, Spring 2025
Title: Holy Rubber Triangles: Algebraic Topology for Data and Learning
Joël Beimler, M.Sc. Thesis, ETH Zürich, Summer 2021
Title: Strong Symplectic Fillings of Contact Manifolds through Lefschetz-Bott Fibrations: Revisited
Semester Research Projects
Metehan Aksay, ETH Zürich, Spring 2023
Graduate Project Title: A Topological Analysis of Contact Manifolds and Their Symplectic Fillings
Marisa Bühler, ETH Zürich, Spring 2021
Graduate Project Title: Symplectic Toric Manifolds and Delzant’s Theorem
Lukas Bertsch, ETH Zürich, Spring 2021
Graduate Project Title: Chern Classes: A Topological and Geometric Approach
Elizabeth Cameron, Undergraduate Summer Research, Northwestern University, Summer 2019
Undergraduate Project Title: Topological Invariants of Surfaces