Chemical Engineering Doctoral Degree Requirements

Program | Faculty | Master's | Doctoral | Courses

1. Within the three months following initial registration as a doctoral candidate, select a major professor 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, p. 17.

4. Within two years 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.

5. 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.

6. At least three weeks 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.

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

8. 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.

9. Pay all fees and expenses.

10. 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 April 30 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 grade of B or better in five of the nine 600-level CHEM-ENG courses:

 621 Thermodynamics I

 622 Thermodynamics II

 623 Thermodynamics III

 625 Chemical Reactor Design

 631 Fluid Mechanics

 633 Transport Processes

 641 Advanced Process Design

 661 Advanced Analysis I

 662 Advanced Analysis II

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) Oral examinations in each of the three areas of transport processes, thermodynamics, and kinetics will be given each year in June. Requirement a) must be completed before the oral exam is taken. Questions in each of the areas will be devised and the oral exam will be administered by a committee of the graduate faculty in chemical engineering. The examining committees will be appointed by the Graduate Program Director or by vote of the faculty.

Each committee shall decide a grade of pass with distinction, pass, or fail for each candidate. Students receiving a failing grade in any one exam on the first attempt will be invited to take a similar exam to be offered in late summer or early fall. Students failing two or three exams may be invited, by vote of the faculty, to repeat either two or three exams. In the event that the student is not invited to retake the exams or in the event that all exams have not been passed on the second try the student will not be admitted to 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 statement and relevance of the problem, literature survey, plan of attack, description of experimental equipment, 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 two years 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 the following June. Students entering at other times will take the exams at a time decided by the Graduate Program Director, but no later than the second June following their admission to the Ph.D. program.