All behavioral and neural sciences (BNS) students must form a thesis committee that is comprised
of their adviser, a chair of the committee (not the adviser), and at least two
other BNS faculty members within six months of passing their candidacy exams. The
committee should meet with the student every six months to offer advice and
monitor progress. In their third year, all BNS students must develop a thesis
proposal and present it to the BNS faculty and students. Formulating a thesis
proposal early in the thesis research phase allows the student to obtain
valuable input from the thesis committee towards developing a rigorous research
plan and a defined thesis project. The initial thesis committee will be
responsible for providing the student with advice during their dissertation
research phase of the program.When the student is ready to graduate, a reader from outside the university will be added to the committee. The outside member of the thesis
committee must not be the student's future postdoctoral fellowship sponsor.
The written thesis may be presented in one of two forms: 1) the
"classic" form consisting of an introductory chapter, method and
analysis section, detailed experiments--results and conclusions, overall
conclusion, and bibliography; or 2) the "compendium" form consisting of
an introduction, three or more published (or in press) full-length
papers, general discussion, and bibliography.
The written thesis must be submitted to the committee three
months before the anticipated graduation date. The thesis committee will
provide feedback on this document within one month and provide the student with
a list of comments. The student will use these comments to revise the thesis,
and provide a point by point response to the comments. The student will submit
this response together with the revised thesis to the committee. The committee
will decide whether further modifications are necessary, if so, a second round
of revisions will follow.
Once the committee has decided that the student has adequately
addressed all comments, the student can schedule the formal oral defense.
At the oral defense the student presents the work in a public lecture, followed
by an oral examination by the thesis committee.
