SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE
The Supervisory Committee is an official University committee that has large responsibilities and power over a student’s progress through the graduate program. Typically, committees are set up in a student’s second year, once they have decided upon an advisor. A Ph.D. committee MUST be set up in advance of the qualifying examination. The Research and Graduate Programs Student Handbook contains specific information concerning the make-up of committees.

A Ph.D. committee consists of a chair (that is, the student’s advisor), several members from inside the Department, and an external committee member from outside the Department. The chair of the committee must be a faculty member in Physics or have a faculty status in Physics. Please note that the external member cannot have any “adjunct” or “courtesy” title inside the Department. Although the Graduate School rules dictate the committee can have four or more members total, we in the Physics Department prefer 5 members. Typically these would be, the chair (advisor), another faculty member working in the same area, if the student is an experimentalist the committee should have a theorist and vice versa, another faculty member in a different sub-field of physics, and an external member. To set up a committee, the student confers with their advisor and asks the faculty members if they would be willing to serve. Once that permission is given (this is usually easy), then the students tell the graduate studies Program Assistant. The Program Assistant will then check with the Chair of the Department or the Graduate Coordinator to make sure that it is a satisfactorily balanced committee, and if everything is agreed, will submit the paperwork to the Graduate School.

Changes in the committee require the written (at least by email) permission of the committee members involved, and will also be checked by the Chair of the Department. It is advised that the committee should be in its final form before the qualifying exam. Changes can be made after that, but there needs to be a good reason.

It is often difficult to find a time when all committee members can meet for an oral qualifying or final exam. There are specific regulations on the substitution of members. In general, one substitute may be allowed, but not the external member or chair. Please resolve scheduling difficulties well in advance!

Master’s degrees need a committee of their own. For an M.S. with thesis, two members are necessary, but three is preferred. For an M.S. non-thesis, only one is needed, but it is usual to have two. For an M.S.T., the preferred committee strength is three, where two members are in Physics and one in education.