The Ph.D. Committee is comprised of the Qualifying Examining Committee plus the student’s Ph.D. advisor. The chair of the Qualifying Examining Committee will serve as chair of the Ph.D. Committee. If for some reason, the chair is unable to fulfill this obligation, the DGS will appoint another tenured member of the Biochemistry primary faculty as chair. Additional committee members may be added. This may be helpful if the dissertation broadens in scope and would benefit from the participation of a faculty member who can contribute relevant new expertise. If it becomes impossible for one of the five members to continue on the committee, meetings can proceed with a minimum of four committee members present, as proscribed by the Graduate School. Changes in the composition of the Dissertation Committee must be approved by the DGS.
Regular meetings of the Ph.D. Committee should be held at least once each academic year or more often as advised by the committee or mentor. Students may also request an “emergency” meeting with their committee to address acute crises. The regular meetings are to keep the committee informed of progress and to provide an opportunity for the committee to advise the student with regard to unforeseen problems or new avenues of research. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule these meetings and then inform the Graduate Program Administrator of the date, time, and place. Ordinarily, meetings should be scheduled for 90 minutes. Students are encouraged to employ an on-line scheduling tool such as as “Doodle” to poll faculty regarding availability for committee meetings. The student should work with the Graduate Program Administrator to reserve a room for these meetings. The student should also provide the members of the committee with a 3-5 page (including figures and references) summary report of research progress/plans one week before the scheduled meeting. In addition, a face page should also be included that gives the student’s name, project title, advisor’s name, and time and place of the meeting. Please note that the format of this report for the first committee meeting following a successful qualifying exam is different from subsequent reports, as follows. The “report” for the first post-candidacy meeting should be written in the style of a short research proposal that gives the aims of the Ph.D. project, background and significance, a plan of attack and, as appropriate, a short description of progress to date, including references for any publications. This document should be roughly 5 pages long (single-spaced) plus a cover page (with name, project title, and the date, time, and location of the meeting, plus references. It is advisable that the advisor look at this document before the student finalizes it and distributes it to the committee.
The Graduate Program Administrator will provide meeting outcome/evaluation forms to both the student and the committee chair. At the conclusion of each meeting the committee will fill out a numerical progress evaluation form that is utilized as data for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation (SACS) process. The Biochemistry Graduate Program does not provide these numerical rankings to the student since these numerical scores do not adequately capture the context and nuance of the committee’s evaluation. If a majority of committee members deem overall progress to be unacceptable, this will be indicated on this form and the Ph.D. advisor will also enter a grade of U (unsatisfactory) for Biochemistry 9999 at the end of that grading period. Two consecutive or three total unsatisfactory progress reports will result in termination from the Ph.D. program. The expectation is that students will not be surprised by a ranking of unacceptable because of previous discussions with the primary mentor indicating that this is a possibility based on the mentor’s evaluation. In addition, with the committee chair’s guidance, the student will draft a summary of the meeting, comprising the committee’s discussion, evaluation of strengths and weeknesses, suggestions for improvement, and the timing of the next meeting. Once fully drafted the letter should be circulated amongst committee members for final approval, and returned to the student. Both the letter and the evaluation forms should be submitted to the Graduate Program Administrator and DGS.
A minimum of one publication in a peer-reviewed journal with the student as the primary (first or co-first) author is required for receiving the Ph.D. in Biochemistry. This publication requirement should not be viewed as sufficient for obtaining a Ph.D. Instead, it is one metric that indicates a student has made sufficient progress towards the competencies required of a Biochemistry Ph.D. A defense cannot take place unless such a paper has been fully accepted by the journal at the time of the defense. The Ph.D. Committee has the responsibility to see that this requirement is fulfilled before a Ph.D. defense takes place. Review articles, chapters based on proceedings of symposia and meetings, and manuscript submissions to pre-print servers (e.g. bioRxiv) do not satisfy this requirement. This requirement can be waived, on a case-by-case basis, by consent of the Biochemistry Graduate Education Advisory Committee. If such a situation arises, the student’s advisor must provide the Advisory Committee a letter stating the rationale behind the request.
Upon completion of the dissertation project to the satisfaction of the Ph.D. Committee, the student will prepare and submit a dissertation, in accordance with the rules of the Graduate School. Students must receive approval from their Ph.D. Committee prior to scheduling their final examination. The completed dissertation should be submitted to the members of the Ph.D. Committee no later than two weeks prior to the day of the final examination. It is the responsibility of the student to notify the DGS, the program administrator, and the office of the department Chair in advance of the time and place of the examination and of the title of the dissertation. This should be completed no later than two weeks prior to the examination.