Environmental Health Sciences

By definition these are two separate committees; in reality they can be and often are identical for purposes of facilitating the dissertation process. The thesis committee serves as a resource to the student during his or her thesis work. It meets regularly (no less than once a year, but preferably every 6 months) to review student progress and make recommendations. With the assistance of the Academic Program Manager, students must initiate the scheduling of these meetings. The student must also complete a Thesis Committee Form for each meeting that is to be approved by all committee members. This form must be submitted to the Academic Program Manager at the completion of the meeting. The Dissertation Defense Committee’s’s role is to oversee the actual defense of the thesis and then to vote on its acceptability as worthy of a PhD.

Thesis Committee

The Thesis Committee requires a minimum of 3 members: the student’s advisor and two additional members, one of whom should be from within the Department. Most Thesis Committees are comprised of 5 members, with three members internal to the Department and two external. Many students prefer to have the same members for their thesis and dissertation/defense committees, however this is not required. The Thesis Committee is assembled in consultation with the student’s mentor; and while it is ultimately the responsibility of the mentor to contact the Committee members, this often is done by the student. Once a Committee is formed, it should assemble within 6 weeks of the completion of Qualifying Examinations. As stated above, the Thesis Committee should convene every 6 months but no less than once a year. Thesis committee meetings will be part of the annual review. The student is also required to present a seminar to the Department once a year; it is recommended that, whenever possible, this serve as a time for a Thesis Committee meeting.

At the Committee meeting, one person from within the Department will be responsible for completing a form that: 1) acknowledges the meeting, 2) lists Committee recommendations, and 3) is signed by both the student and the Committee members. These forms are to be kept on file by the Academic Program Manager. Once the doctoral candidate is adequately prepared to begin writing his/her thesis in consultation with their mentor, the Thesis Committee should hold a final meeting where it will determine whether the student has done a sufficient level of work to recommend that he/she proceed with the composition of the thesis. At this time, the student and advisor need to identify a final Defense Committee including the Thesis Reader.

Dissertation Committee Formation

To commence the Dissertation, the Director of Educational Affairs - with the advice of the Doctoral Candidate and Advisor - will recommend appointment of a five person Dissertation Committee. Three members must be senior Faculty (Associate Professor or higher) from the Department. Two members must be from outside the Department. One senior faculty member, who is not the candidate's dissertation sponsor, is designated impartial chair of the ad hoc dissertation committee. One committee member (internal or external) must be the dissertation reader. The reader must read and approve the thesis before it can be distributed to the rest of the Committee members and before a defense date can be set. Any or all of the members can come from the Thesis Committee, but the makeup must include the advisor, two members from within the department, and two from outside of the department.

Additional information can be found on the GSAS Dissertation Office website.

Dissertation Formatting

Information on formatting for the dissertation can be found in the Dissertation Guidelines in the GSAS Dissertation handbook. Additionally, bound hard copies from former EHS graduates of the PhD program are available for viewing from the EHS Library (room 124).