Thesis Committee

Early in the semester following successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, the student and her/his advisor select a thesis committee. The committee is composed of four members of the MCDB faculty who are members of the Graduate Faculty, one of whom is the advisor and another a member of COGSA (the advisor cannot also be the COGSA representative). If the committee member who is on COGSA rotates off COGSA before the student graduates, that committee member maintains ex-officio COGSA membership for the sole purpose of reporting the student’s progress to COGSA. The student should request one member of the committee other than the advisor to serve as Chair. A thesis abstract and the proposed committee must be approved by COGSA. COGSA will contact students at the beginning of their third year for this information and review the newly formed committees at a Fall meeting. Once the Committee is approved, the student should supply committee members with copies of the thesis proposal. The first committee meeting should follow the student’s first MMB talk (see below). All changes in Committee make-up must be approved by COGSA. For the thesis defense (or earlier for interdisciplinary projects that could benefit from expertise from another department), a fifth faculty member from outside MCDB is invited to join the committee.