Faculty Executive Summary

These are the requirements for receiving a PhD from the department for students starting fall 2016 and later. All supervising faculty should be familiar with them. 

1. Completing 18 hours of graduate level coursework. This includes 9 hours of required Chemical Engineering technical coursework: Graduate Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena in the fall, Graduate Kinetics in the spring.

Students with master's coursework in these areas can apply to the Graduate Advisor to waive the requirement on a case-by-case basis.

Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher required.

2. Passing a candidacy examination by the 4th long semester

This includes a Written report of 10 pages maximum

• One page executive summary of research proposal (single spaced)
• Introduction
• Proposed research problem and importance
• Proposed research strategy and methodology
• Preliminary results
• Timetable for completion
• Anticipated outcomes/milestones of a completed dissertation

Content equivalent to a completed research paper is NOT expected in the candidacy exam. 

For the Oral examination, students should prepare ~30 minutes of content, and plan on 90 minutes for the entire examination, to allow time for questions during and after the presentation.

Students are expected to answer the questions from the examiners without the help of the supervisor.

Ideally, all committee members will meet in person to hear the oral presentation. But examiners can attend virtually, or the presentation can be given separately if all examiners cannot attend on the same day. All committee members must sign the exam form. Members who attend virtually can email the graduate coordinator to confirm the presentation and report were satisfactory.

During the examination, students are expected to demonstrate:

• adequate progress toward identifying an important and impactful research problem
• the creation of a viable research strategy/specific plans
• presentation of preliminary results to warrant continuation on the track toward PhD candidacy
• an overall scholarly understanding of the research area

Progress in this preliminary research proposal will be scored as pass, conditional pass (with conditions such as, “repeat within one semester,” “re-write document,” or “take additional coursework”), and fail. Students who fail the examination will be transferred to the terminal Master’s degree program.

3. Completing at least two semesters with a total of 20 hours TA service in the department. Service in a course outside the department does not count towards this requirement, even if the course is taught by the supervisor.

4. Completing annual committee update meetings after advancing to candidacy. Ideally, the entire committee meets together to discuss progress. But they can attend virtually, or students can meet with some members separately if needed. All committee members must sign the annual update form.

5. Completing a dissertation and passing a Final Oral Examination

The Graduate School has strict rules and deadlines for scheduling the final oral examination and submitting paperwork for graduation. These are not flexible and students should make themselves familiar with the rules, because they are responsible for following them. Committee members will need to sign the Request for Final Oral (Pink Form), Signature Page, and Gold Sheet. The Gold Sheet is sent directly to the supervisor, who is responsible for bringing it to the final oral defense. Digital signatures are accepted on all three forms, but they must be legible, and must all appear on the same page. The graduate coordinator has pink and gold paper available.