Environmental Health Sciences

After completing the qualifying exam, candidates next turn their focus to the thesis project and choosing a thesis committee in consultation with their advisor. Students should meet with their thesis committee within 2 months of completing the exam. While working on the thesis topic, students should be guided by both their primary advisor and the thesis committee. Students must meet, at minimum, once per year with all thesis committee members - although more frequent meetings are often appropriate.

Thesis projects should be hypothesis-driven and must comprise original research. Therefore students are obligated to perform studies that test their hypothesis, collect data, and complete appropriate analysis of his/her data. The best measure of the student’s work is whether the research is deemed worthy of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. While publication is not required, the candidate’s goal should be for at least one publication with the student cited as first author.