of senior year and concludes it before his or her graduation. The honors thesis is always subject to an oral examination, which is based on defending a dissertation or oral argumentation. The oral examination committee includes a member of the faculty from the same department, a member of the faculty from a different department, the student's faculty advisor, and an examiner who specializes in the field of study that the student is defending and who comes from another institution of high rank. Research and faculty According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, the college received $1.15 million in grants, fellowships, and R&D stipends for research. The college spent $1,584,000 in 2014 on research and development. The Bates Student Research Fund was established for students completing independent research or capstones. STEM grants are offered to students in the science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields who wish to showcase their research at professional conferences or national laboratories. Independent research grants from the college can range from $300 to over $200,000 for a three-year research program depending on donor or agency. The college's Harward Center is its main research entity for community-based research and offers fellowships to students. According to a 2001 study, Bates College's economics department was the most cited liberal arts department in the United States. Bates College has been the site of landmark experiments and academic movements. In chemistry, the college has played an important role in shaping ideas about inorganic chemistry and is considered the birthplace of inorganic photochemistry as its early manifestations was started at the college by 1943 alumnus George Hammond who was later dubbed "the father of the movement". Hammond would go on to invent Hammond's postulate, revolutionizing activation levels in chemical compounds. In physics, 1974 alumnus Steven Girvin credited his time at the college as pivotal in his development of the fractional quantum Hall effect, now a pillar in Hall conductance. During the development and production of the first nuclear weapons during World War II, two students researching nuclear chemistry at the college were hired by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as part of the first Manhattan project scientific team. Atop the Carnegie Science Hall sits Stephens Observatory which houses the college's high-powered 12-inch Newtonian reflecting telescope. The telescope is used for research by the college, local government agencies, and other educational institutions. The Observatory is also home to an eight-inch Celestron, a