GRADUATE PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Selection of Faculty Advisor and Area of Research
During the
first six weeks of the academic year, first year students will attend a
"General Techniques Course" that will be organized, administered, and taught
by senior CMP students. The purpose of this course is to expose new
students to general laboratory techniques, such as pipetting, RNA isolation,
and Western blotting, that they may encounter in their laboratory rotations.
upon completion of this course, first year students will then perform at
least two (2), preferably three (3), 10-week laboratory rotations that must
be approved by the Graduate Program Director. Students will be
evaluated by their rotation mentors. This evaluation should be reviewed by
both the student and mentor at the beginning of the rotation. Both the
student and mentor are required to sign the completed evaluation at the
beginning and the end of the rotation; all completed evaluations will be
kept on file.
(Click here for evaluation form.)
In the
event that a student identifies a faculty member outside of the Cellular and
Molecular Physiology Graduate Program with whom he/she would like to rotate,
the student must bring this matter to the attention of the Graduate Program
Director. The student must state clearly to the Director why he/she has made
such a choice. The Director will then present the matter to the Cellular and
Molecular Physiology Graduate Committee for review and approval. By the end
of the first year, the student is expected to have selected an area of
research and a permanent advisor from the Primary and Secondary faculty
roster (pages 19 & 20 of this booklet).
During the
second year, the student should assemble his/her thesis committee. The role
of this committee is two-fold. First, the committee is to assist the
student with his / her thesis project with regard to direction and
execution. Second, the committee is to evaluate the student’s progress
throughout the completion of the qualifying exam and thesis defense. The
committee will consist of a minimum of five faculty members to include
three ‘internal’ Physiology faculty (at least two must be primary
physiology faculty) and two ‘external’ faculty (at least one external
member should be neither a primary nor secondary Physiology & Biophysics
faculty appointment); the Departmental Chair and Graduate Program Director
are ex-officio members of all thesis committees. Because it is
the responsibility of the Graduate Program Director to attend all student
thesis committee meetings, the student / mentor must notify the Director of
each meeting. The student’s committee is required to meet formally
with the student every 9-12 months, and submit a written report summarizing
the deliberations of that meeting to the Graduate Program Director with a
copy to the student. After 4 years in the program, the Committee will meet
every 6 months until the Ph.D. dissertation work is completed.