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Besides thanking my thesis advisor, can I acknowledge other professors who have guided me along the way during my master's program or is the acknowledgements section really only for thanking the advisor?

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  • I guess the norm might depend on your country and even your university. Try to find some other thesis in your department and see how it looks like.
    – Arctic Char
    Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 2:51
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    I think this is a case where you get to decide for yourself.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 3:05

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You might want to peek at a few other examples to make sure there's no institutional norms, but you can often acknowledge whoever you want, and indeed its a good place to acknowledge more personal contributions.

For example, in mine I acknowledge:

  • My advisor
  • The other members of my committee
  • Some colleagues who provided data
  • A family member who used to be a member of a profession who I asked a few questions about
  • Several fellow students
  • My funding sources
  • StackOverflow and CrossValidated
  • My favorite purveyor of caffeine.
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    +1, but I wish I could +2 for the "favorite purveyor of caffeine". Somehow I don't think my advisor would take that well.
    – tonysdg
    Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 7:28
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I actually think students have a strong tendency to "overacknowledge" in their theses, papers, presentations etc. After all, a thesis, a paper or a presentation by a student is or should reflect the work of the student, not the work of Peter, Paul and Mary who helped this student.

It's always a matter of personal preferences of course but, aside from those directly involved in supporting the results of the thesis or unless you present results as spokesperson for a group, acknowlements are IMO a case where less is more.

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