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B. Thesis Requirements

Selecting a Doctoral Thesis Advisor

After admission to doctoral candidacy, a student must select a doctoral thesis advisor. Acting as an academic advisor is not a commitment to act as a doctoral thesis advisor. The advisor/advisee relationship is long-term and not to be entered into casually by either party. It's important to establish a clear understanding of commitment from the start.  

Usually, the thesis advisor is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon. On occasion students are permitted to choose an advisor from outside the Department or even outside the university. However, when the thesis advisor is not a regular or research faculty member at Carnegie Mellon, the head of the Mathematical Sciences Department shall appoint, after consulting both the candidate and their thesis advisor, a faculty member in the Department to serve as the candidate's Departmental sponsor. It is the Departmental sponsor's responsibility to monitor the candidate's work and to assist the candidate, the thesis advisor, and the Department in assuring that all work conforms to the candidate's doctoral program. 

After the Qualifying Oral Examination has been passed and a thesis advisor has been selected, a new Doctoral Advisory Committee (which may or may not differ from the previous one) shall be formed. The members will be nominated by the thesis advisor with the agreement of the candidate (and of the Departmental sponsor, if there is one), and their appointment approved by the Department head. The purpose of the committee at this stage is to serve as a resource for the student and to monitor the student's progress. The responsibility for advising the student lies with the thesis advisor. 

The committee may include members from outside the Department. The committee must have at least three members, including the thesis advisor and the Departmental sponsor, if there is one (and thus will have at least one member from the Mathematical Sciences Department). The student is responsible for maintaining contact with the members of the committee. 

The Doctoral Thesis Committee

Often the Doctoral Advisory Committee will serve as the Doctoral Thesis Committee, although this is not required. The thesis committee should be appointed no less than two months before the estimated date of the final examination. In order to permit an orderly performance of the committee's functions, it shall be the responsibility of the candidate to keep the thesis committee informed about the progress of his or her work, from the time the committee is appointed to the time the thesis is submitted. The committee may specify whether this should be done individually or collectively by formal or informal presentations.

The purpose of a Doctoral Thesis Committee is to judge the validity, originality, significance, and proper presentation of the candidate's doctoral thesis. To that end, the committee shall examine the thesis submitted by the candidate, conduct the public oral final examination on the thesis, prescribe corrections or revisions to the thesis before or at the time of the examination, and certify to the dean its finding on the acceptability of the thesis in its final form.

The Doctoral Thesis Committee shall consist of no fewer than four members, and shall include the thesis advisor, as well as the Departmental sponsor if there is one.

At least half of the members of the committee shall be regular or research faculty members in the Department of Mathematical Sciences; one of these, who must be a regular faculty member with the rank of assistant professor or higher, shall chair the committee. If qualified under the preceding provision, the thesis advisor will ordinarily chair the committee; the same is applicable to the Departmental sponsor if there is one.

At least one member of the committee shall be a "visitor", that is a person not affiliated with the Department nor with any Department participating in the candidate's thesis research; the thesis advisor may not serve as "visitor". To be eligible to be a "visitor", a person should be familiar with academic standards and procedures and be especially qualified to judge some aspect of the thesis. A "visitor" may come from another Department at Carnegie Mellon, from some other university, or from outside academic institutions altogether.

A vacancy on the doctoral thesis committee need only be filled if the remaining members would not constitute a valid committee. When a vacancy is filled, care shall be taken that the new committee member has the time and opportunity to participate effectively in the performance of the committee's functions.

The final examination may proceed only if the committee members present would, by themselves, constitute a valid thesis committee according to the preceding provisions. A committee member is counted as present if he or she participates via a video-conference connection. A member of the committee who is unable to be present at the final examination may, if he or she wishes, submit a written recommendation.

When the thesis advisor (and the Departmental sponsor if there is one) is satisfied that the thesis is ready, it shall be submitted to the committee. The final examination shall be scheduled so as to provide the committee with two weeks to study the thesis between its submission and the date of the examination.