The program for the Ph.D. degree must lead to mastery at a high level of the fundamental principles of physics and mathematics necessary for productive and creative scholarship in physics. The program is planned by the student and a member of the Graduate Faculty who acts as her/his research advisor so as to meet the student's individual needs and interests. Important aspects of the program include:
A set of contemporary physics courses (780.XX) which provide a general background of contemporary problems in the respective research fields.
A set of advanced courses intended to develop the essentials of the various specialized areas of contemporary physics.
In addition to the formal course requirements, all graduate students in physics are expected to attend the weekly departmental colloquia and seminars on a regular basis.
Each candidate for a Ph.D. degree is expected to have some teaching experience (classroom or laboratory) as part of his or her graduate program.
Each student is expected to begin research as early as possible and should endeavor to decide on an area of specialization during the first year of study and a research advisor prior to the annual review for the second year. In any case the choice of research advisor should be made by the beginning of the third year.
Each student will be expected to proceed to the Ph. D. degree as quickly as is possible under her/his personal circumstances.
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In addition, other courses in contemporary physics at the 780 level are offered from time to time. A preliminary list of these courses is given in Appendix B. Courses may be taught only when an adequate number of students enroll for credit in the course.
In order to become familiar with the research programs in the department, students are normally expected to enroll in the Seminar "Topics in Physics," Physics 795, during Autumn and Winter Quarters of their first year.
Advanced Courses Several courses which are advanced extensions of the core course sequences are offered on a regular basis given sufficient demand by the students. These include:
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Courses in the above list without a number are listed with the generic special Topics number 880.20 when taught. The student is required to take a minimum of five one-quarter courses from the advanced group. Beginning with students entering in Summer, 1994, one of the courses must be Physics 830 (Quantum IV), Physics 880.08 (Theory of Quantized Fields), or the advanced Many-Body Physics course (listed as 880.20 when it is taught).
With the approval of her/his Advisory Committee, a student may substitute two courses from any other department for two of the five required advanced courses.
that area provides an important means of becoming acquainted with the frontiers of the field. All students are strongly advised to attend the special seminars in their chosen research area.
The following programs show possible arrangements of the courses in a Ph.D. program for students beginning graduate school with varying degrees of preparation. All of these examples assume that the student begins her/his study in Summer or Autumn Quarter. Other arrangements are possible. Students who have weaknesses in particular areas in physics or mathematics are expected to make up such deficiencies as early in their graduate career as possible.
For each student, an individual program is arranged through consultation between the graduate student and her/his academic advisor. Some sample curricula are shown below, each assuming a certain level of prior preparation. The recommended time of the Qualifying Examination is indicated in each program.
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The next box indicates the curriculum recommended for a generally-prepared student with deficiencies in one area (in this example quantum mechanics).
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In some cases the course loads in the first two examples will be too heavy for a student on a Graduate Teaching Associate appointment. A sample curriculum for this case is given below, noting that a minimum of seven courses per year is required to be in good standing and receive a Fourth Quarter GRA." (See section 6.)
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The above sample curricula are intended primarily as guidelines. The
curricula will be individually tailored to a student's background to make
up any deficiencies as soon as possible and to bring the student to the
Qualifying Examination as soon as her/his level of preparation is adequate.
The student's research advisor is responsible for calling the Advisory
Committee together to determine the set of advanced courses that will be a
part of the student's curriculum. This program must be filed with the Vice
Chairman for Graduate Studies.
Graduate Examinations-Ph.D. Degree
A student working towards the Ph.D. degree is required by the Graduate School to pass a General Examination for admission to candidacy for the degree. This exam consists of a written and an oral portion and is given on an individual basis. The student must be registered during the quarter in which he/she expects to take the General Examination and must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. The General Exam is to be taken after the student has passed the Qualifying Examination (Section 4) at the Ph.D. level, completed the required advanced courses, and before the beginning of the fourth academic year. For students in those areas where the demand for the advanced courses may be limited and offered on a biannual basis, it is expected that some special consideration will be given in order that the student can proceed to the General Examination in a timely fashion. For example, in a case where not enough courses have been offered, or if courses need to be spread over time to parallel research, the Graduate Studies Committee will accept (in advance of the exam) a proposed timetable for the taking of the advanced courses so that the exam can proceed without unnecessary delay. The purpose of the exam is to test the student's knowledge of his/her general research area, to evaluate the student's ability to think and to express ideas clearly, and to determine the student's capacity to undertake independent research.
Upon completion of the advanced courses, the student's research advisor is responsible for the addition of a fourth member of the Physics Faculty outside her/his area of specialization to form the Advisory/General Committee, initiating, and coordinating the written and oral portions of the General Examination. In consultation with the student and the Advisory/General Committee, the research advisor sets the date for the oral portion of the Exam. The Advisory/General Committee then meets to choose a topic for the written portion. Thirty five to forty days before the oral portion of the exam, the advisor, on behalf of the Advisory/General Committee, informs the student of the topic by letter with a copy sent to the Graduate Studies Office. The advisor sends the "Notification of General Examination" form to the Graduate School. The Graduate School appoints a Graduate School Representative to serve on the General Examination Committee. The student must submit copies of the written portion of the Examination to all members of the General Examination Committee four weeks after the topic has been assigned to him/her by the committee.
The written portion of the General Examination will consist of a professional quality report on the assigned topic. The topic should be sufficiently broad as to complement the intended research project and to ground the student thoroughly in the literature of her/his chosen research area. It should not be as narrow as a thesis research proposal. The topic should serve as a vehicle for the student to review and know the literature of the field. Students who are new to a research area may find it desirable to do background reading in the area before scheduling the General Examination. The student may freely use all the resources of the University including faculty and graduate students. The Advisory/General Committee may reserve the right not to answer questions of judgment but may very well answer questions of fact. The paper should be from 10 to 20 pages in length, double spaced, and printed by a good quality printer. The paper should include a clear introduction to the topic and complete references.
The oral portion of the General Examination must follow the completion of the written portion within seven to ten days. It will generally last two hours, beginning with a summary of no more than one hour of the material contained in the paper. The General Examination Committee will question the student about the specific topic of the paper, and about broader issues related to the research area, including the material included in the advanced courses. All members of the Committee shall be given the opportunity to participate in the questioning. The Committee will be testing whether or not the student has learned the background, literature, techniques, etc. appropriate to her/his chosen specialty. This "common knowledge" of the field is considerably wider than that required for a dissertation project, but without it the research cannot be related to other work in the field. The General Examination should test whether a student is prepared to begin a detailed thesis research project. Attendance at the oral portion of the General Examination is strictly limited to the members of the Examination Committee. No observers, faculty or graduate students, may be present.
The written and the oral portions of the General Examination constitute a single examination, and the decision of the Examination Committee will be reached immediately following the oral portion. The research advisor, as chairperson, shall have the responsibility of seeing that the exam is conducted on a high level with fairness to the student and to the members of the Committee. To pass the General Examination the student must receive unanimous approval of the Examination Committee. For those students whose performance is unsatisfactory, the Examination Committee may recommend repetition of the exam within six months, or that the student obtain an M.S. degree and then ask for reconsideration. No student may take the General Examination more than twice. The outcome of the Exam shall be reported promptly to the Dean of the Graduate School and the Graduate Studies Office on a form furnished to the Examination Committee.
Provided all other requirements have been met, the satisfactory performance on the General Exam admits the student to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree at the end of the quarter in which the general exam is successfully completed. After the quarter in which he/she is admitted to candidacy the student must be registered for at least two quarters and for not fewer than 20 hours of graduate credit. (GSH 11.6.11.2)
The student submits a draft copy of the dissertation document to the Advisory/Dissertation Committee for approval. By signing the "Draft Approval" form, the members of the Advisory/Dissertation Committee judge that the dissertation is of sufficient merit to warrant holding the Final Oral Examination. The time and place of the Final Oral Examination shall be set by the advisor after consultation with the other members of the committee, and this information is communicated to the Graduate School by means of the "Draft Approval" form. This form, along with a complete dissertation draft, must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than two weeks before the Final Oral Exam. At the same time, the Graduate Secretary must be notified. The Secretary will, in turn, notify the PGSC, which will announce the event to the Department. The Graduate School will review the dissertation for proper format, will appoint a Graduate School Representative to the Final Oral Examination Committee, and will provide the advisor with a "Final Examination" form and a "Thesis Approval" form.
The Final Oral Examination is held at least two weeks after approval of the dissertation draft and must be scheduled within five years of the passing of the General Examination. The Final Oral Examination deals intensively with the portion of the candidate's field of specialization in which the dissertation falls, though it need not be confined exclusively to the subject matter of the dissertation. The Examination shall be conducted by the Final Defense Examination Committee (the Advisory/Dissertation Committee plus the Graduate School representative). The student's advisor acts as chairperson of this Final Defense Examination Committee. The Examination lasts approximately two hours.
The part of the exam in which the results of the student's research are presented may be attended by other graduate students and faculty members. However, only the members of the Examination Committee may pose questions to the candidate. At the conclusion of this presentation, the examination committee may continue questioning the student, if it wishes. After this question period, the student and the audience are excused from the room and the decision regarding performance is made. In order to be considered satisfactory, the report of the Examination Committee may have no more than one dissenting vote. The Graduate School shall be notified promptly of the results of the Examination on the "Final Defense Examination" form. On the "Thesis Approval" form, the dissertation committee gives final approval to the dissertation document. The approved dissertation is submitted to the graduate school no later than one week before commencement.