Thesis

We are happy that you are interested in writing your Bachelor or Master thesis at the Chair of Forest Growth and Woody Biomass Production. Thesis topics at our Chair are usually linked to ongoing research projects, but own ideas are welcome as well. Given that forest growth research is an international subject and most of the recent literature is available in English language only, we expect Master theses to be written in English and encourage Bachelor students to write their thesis in English as well. For Master theses with a strong practical and local focus, writing your thesis in German language may, however, be appropriate.

Theses that were written in our group can be found under Publications.

To discuss your ideas, please make an appointment with us. After a personal meeting, we will ask you to write a two-page exposé on your thesis focussing on the following points:

• Working title
• Research justification (what is the underlying problem or which observation initiated the work?)
• Current state of knowledge (based on a literature review)
• Study objectives and hypotheses
• Data and methods
• Time plan
• Key literature

Your exposé will be discussed with the thesis supervisor(s) and used as a basis to decide whether you obtain the topic.

A guideline for preparing your thesis is available here. As most theses require data analyses in R, an installation guide for R / RStudio and an Introduction to R / RStudio is available as well. Knowledge of basic statistics as well as experience with data analysis R / RStudio are expected.

A succesfull participation in the module UWFMF39 "Dendroecology" is requested for Master students that want to write their thesis in the field of tree-ring research.