Timeline for Selecting Project/Dissertation Advisor and Committee

Students’ choices for Dissertation Advisors are due by the last day of the PHC 488/588. Students should provide at least 3 names of faculty ranked in order of preference by email to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). The DGS may request additional choices if needed. The PhD students have dissertation committees; the BS/MS, PharmD/MS and MS students have Project Committees.

Students requiring additional time to make their decisions should notify the DGS by November 30 and will have until the end of the Spring Semester.

The PhD and PharmD/PhD Dissertation Committee is normally chosen after the student has successfully completed the comprehensive Preliminary Examination. The Dissertation Committee must be chosen before the filing of the “Application to Candidacy”, i.e., after the student has satisfactorily completed most (if not all) of the course work.

Approval

Faculty should not make formal commitments to PhD students until the Graduate Education Committee has reviewed and coordinated the choices provided by students. The assignments proposed by the Graduate Education Committee will be reviewed and approved by the Department Chair.

Selecting Faculty

The Graduate School of the University requires a minimum of 3 University at Buffalo Graduate faculty members to serve on the PhD Dissertation committee.

The Chair of the Dissertation Committee usually is the student’s research supervisor. Only Graduate Faculty from the Department can serve as the Chair of the Dissertation Committee for PhD. and PharmD/PhD students.

The Department recommends that at least one member of the Committee should have the academic rank of Professor in the Department. At least two of the members of the PhD and the PharmD/PhD Dissertation committee must be full time, tenure-track faculty members in the Department. The Department requires that the two other members of the committee (i.e., besides the research supervisor) be unconnected to the student’s research project.

If the PhD student’s research supervisor is not a faculty member of the Department, the Chair of the PhD Dissertation Committee must be appointed from among the faculty of the Department. The student’s research supervisor must be a member of the Graduate Faculty and will serve as the fourth member of the committee. Pharm.D.–Ph.D. students are required to select a research supervisor from the among the Department’s graduate faculty.

All Graduate Faculty in the Department (Regular, Adjunct and Research) are eligible to serve as Project Advisors. The MS Project Committee is comprised of at least one faculty member in addition to the student’s research project advisor.

The DGS must approve the selection of the PhD Dissertation Committee.

Students should work with their research supervisor to select this committee, but be prepared that the chosen faculty may decline because of other responsibilities. Members of the committee should be chosen with great care, because this committee can greatly facilitate the progress of the dissertation work.

Meetings

Students should seek an informal meeting with their Project or Dissertation Committee members every six months to review progress and to discuss proposed studies and the future direction of the research project.

The student must schedule a meeting with their complete dissertation committee within one month after delivering a Department seminar. It is recommended that no less than three meetings with the full dissertation committee (including the oral defense of the research proposal) be carried out prior to the thesis defense. Such meetings should be conducted at least once a year after completion of the departmental Preliminary Examination.

It is recommended that the entire Dissertation Committee should meet at least once a year, preferably soon after the student has presented each departmental seminar, to discuss the student’s research. The student is responsible for scheduling meetings of the PhD Dissertation Committee.

Presentation and Report

BS/MS, MS, and PharmD/MS students must present a departmental seminar prior to completion of the program and submit an electronic copy of their final Project Report to their committee 14 days prior to their defense. The final project report should be submitted as an electronic copy to the department within 30 days of a successful oral defense.