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. A committee must be formed by the end of the Spring semester of the 2nd year in the program.

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, a student confers with his or her advisor, and asks the faculty members if they would be willing to serve. Once that all the Committee members sign on the form, the student passes the form to the Program Assistant for graduate studies. 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. If a particular faculty member is out of town and cannot sign the form, an e-mail confirming his or her willingness to serve on the Committee should be sent to Graduate Coordinator.

In additon to monitoring the student's progress a continuous basis, the Supervisor Committee also holds Annual Meetings, where a student reports on the progress achieved during the past year. The first Annual Meeting should take place in a year after the Qualifying Exam. Unlike the cases of Qualifying and Final Exams, only three committee members are required to participate in an Annual Meeting. Participation of the external member is not required.

In regard to the physical presence of the Committee members during the exams, the Department of Physics adheres to the current UF policy which states that "...the qualifying and comprehensive oral examinations and the oral defense of a thesis, project or dissertation may be conducted using video and/or telecommunications. It is required that the student and chair or co-chair must be in the same physical location. All other members may participate from remote sites via technological means." See http://graduateschool.ufl.edu/personnel-and-policy/roles-and-responsibilities-of-graduate-faculty for more detail.

Graduate faculty members who retire may continue their service on supervisory committees for one year. Retired faculty who wish to continue serving on existing or new committees beyond this period may do so with departmental approval.

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.

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.
Download Supervisory Committee Form