PhD Dissertation

Thesis Committee and Committee Meetings

After the qualifying exam is completed, a thesis committee should be formed of three individuals with committee meetings that assess the progress of the research. Committee meetings should take place every six months or more frequently dependent on the results of meetings.

The Dissertation

The graduate dissertation is the all-encompassing document describing original research carried out by the PhD student. The historical background, the scientific context of the experiments, and the data are presented and discussed extensively in the dissertation. It is expected that the research carried out to generate the dissertation will also result in published papers in recognized scientific journals, for which the student is the first author. Each chapter should indicate which publications (if any) are represented by the described work. At least one first-authored manuscript should be submitted for publication before a student may defend the dissertation. If a manuscript is not yet accepted for publication, a submitted draft must be appended to the dissertation, even if this draft ultimately requires additional experimental results. The manuscript should be written in the style of a specific (indicated) journal. A co-first authorship paper meets the requirement.

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List of Theses