Graduate Program
Ph.D. Requirements
The Department of Chemistry offers the Ph.D. in Chemistry with research in:
- Bioorganic, Organic and Materials
- Polymer
- Bioinorganic
- Biophysical and Spectroscopy
- Computational and Theoretical
The major Ph.D. program requirements provide a strong foundation for dissertation research and beyond:
- Completing four or more graduate courses in chemistry or related fields — many students choose to take six or more
- Giving a formal seminar — to develop familiarity with the research literature and practice giving presentations to a broad audience
- Delivering a research progress report, including a departmental poster session and an oral exam — to assess progress and foundation knowledge; we do not require written comprehensives or qualifiers
- Preparing and defending an original research proposal — the last hurdle to all-but-dissertation status
- Teaching for two semesters as a teaching assistant — to build important communication skills useful for both academic and industrial careers
In addition, students who are not native speakers of English are required to develop sufficient English proficiency to pass a test of spoken English administered by the Intercultural Communication Center by the end of their third semester.
Finally, the culmination of the Ph.D. program is a dissertation on the student’s research. The dissertation is expected to include research worthy of publication. Students are strongly encouraged to publish work as they progress through the program and many students have 2–4 publications before they reach their defense.
Details about the Ph.D. program requirements are in the Guide to Graduate Studies.