Doctor of Philosophy Degree Program

Doctoral Degree Requirements

1. Within the three months following initial registration as a doctoral candidate, select a member of the Chemical Engineering faculty or adjunct faculty as your adviser, based on the area of research contemplated for the dissertation.

2. Arrange for and take the oral part of the preliminary comprehensive examination.

3. Upon successful completion of the oral part of the comprehensive exam, select a doctoral dissertation committee (thesis committee) composed of at least three graduate faculty members. For details regarding the composition of the dissertation committee refer to Doctoral Degree Requirements, elsewhere in this Bulletin. Within three months following the successful completion of the oral part of the comprehensive exam, submit to the departmental Graduate Program Office a 1-page memo with a summary of your thesis topic and a list of your doctoral dissertation committee.

4. Required Courses
a) Earn a grade of B or better in six of the core 600-level ChE courses, including: 

  • ChE 621 Thermodynamics I
  • ChE 622 Thermodynamics II
  • ChE 625 Chemical Reactor Design
  • ChE 633 Transport Processes
  • ChE 661 Advanced Analysis I
  • ChE 663 Advanced Analysis III
  • Second 600-level ChE Transport course
  • 600-level ChE course on Experimental Methods

Equivalent course work from other institutions may be used to satisfy this requirement with the approval of the Graduate Program Director up to the maximum permitted by the Graduate School.

b) 1 credit/semester of Departmental Seminar (ChE 691)
c) 2 credits/semester of research group seminar in each semester after the first
d) 1 one-time 2-hour seminar of (ENV HL) Laboratory Safety Course and continuous compliance with hazardous waste and safety certifications

5. Within 24 months following the successful completion of the oral part of the comprehensive exam, prepare and defend a dissertation proposal describing the research to be done for the dissertation. The defense of this prospectus will constitute the written part of the comprehensive exam.

6. The approved and signed original copy of the dissertation proposal must be filed with the Graduate School. This must be done at least seven months prior to the defense of your thesis. A signed copy of the approved prospectus must also be filed with the departmental office. It is the student’s responsibility to provide the required copies.

7. At least one month before the date of your final oral examination (thesis defense), submit to your adviser and dissertation committee a final draft of your thesis and an abstract of 600 words or less, suitable for publication. Arrange for an announcement of the date of the final oral exam in the Weekly Bulletin section of In the Loop. Follow the Typing Guidelines for Doctoral Dissertations, available from the Graduate School.

8. Following satisfactory performance in your final oral examination, submit your dissertation electronically to the Graduate School. Present one bound copy to your adviser (and others as may be appropriate). Also, one unbound copy is required for the department office.

9. Submit to the department the “Certification of Eligibility for a Doctoral Degree.” To complete this form, the student checks his/her status at the Graduate Records Office.

10. Pay all fees and expenses.

11. All of the requirements described above must be completed in accordance with a schedule available from the Graduate School, in order to qualify for granting of the degree at the commencement each year. For example, the requirements must normally be completed by the April deadline to qualify for the May commencement.

Preliminary Comprehensive Examination
For the Ph.D. degree the Graduate School requires the successful completion of the preliminary comprehensive examination. This examination consists of two parts, one oral and one written. The qualification procedure for the Ph.D. in chemical engineering shall consist of the following:

a) Earn a GPA of 3.0 or above in the following four of the core 600-level CHEM-ENG courses:

  • 621 Thermodynamics I
  • 625 Chemical Reactor Design
  • 633 Transport Processes
  • 661 Advanced Analysis I

b) The Ph.D. qualifying exam will be a one-hour oral exam, consisting of four problems, the solutions of which the student will present to the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Committee. One of the four problems will be comprehensive (i.e., requiring knowledge that covers the entire core of the Chemical Engineering discipline), while the other three problems will be in each one of the three core areas of Chemical Engineering, i.e., Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena, and Chemical Reaction Engineering. The student will be given the problem statements and will have one hour for preparation before entering the exam room. 

The Graduate Program Director (GPD) will be available to answer questions that the students may have prior to the examination.

The Ph.D. exam committee will consist of 4-6 faculty members who have been appointed as committee members. The assessment will be based on the student's performance in the oral exam and an evaluation of the student's progress to date.

The examining committee will decide a grade of pass or fail for each candidate. Students who fail the exam may retake it only upon invitation of the faculty. Retake exams will be offered in May of the student’s first year of study for students who have taken the exam in January of their first year of study. In the event that the student is not invited to retake the exam, he or she will not be allowed to continue in the Ph.D. program.

c) A written proposal, describing the thesis research to be defended before the dissertation committee. This proposal is to outline the proposed research topic, including a statement of the problem and its relevance, literature survey, plan of attack, description of experimental equipment and/or analytical/computation techniques, description of safety considerations, object or conclusions to be derived from the study, timetable, etc. The proposal should be typed, double-spaced, and of sufficient length to cover the subject matter adequately. This shall constitute the written portion of the preliminary comprehensive examination. Students are urged to complete the proposal within one year of completion of the oral exams. Students failing to complete the proposal within 24 months of completion of the orals shall be ineligible for financial support until the proposal is complete.

Students entering the graduate program in September will take the exams during the month of January, following their first semester of study. Students entering at other times will take the exams at a time decided by the Graduate Program Director, after the completion of the required coursework and, typically, no later than the second summer following their admission to the Ph.D. program.

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