1. Students should establish their Supervisory Committee at least four months before scheduling the General Examination (The Graduate School plans to remove this four-month requirement starting in the 2009-10 academic year)..



2. The Supervisory Committee is responsible for determining that a student's background of study and preparation are sufficient to justify the undertaking of the General Examination.



3. Committees chaired by an Adjunct or Affiliate faculty member of the Physics Department must include at least two regular Physics Department faculty members. Students whose Research Adviser is not a member of the Physics Department Graduate Faculty (regular, adjunct or affiliate) must have a regular member of the Physics Graduate Faculty as Chair of the Supervisory Committee, and that Chair is expected to exercise an active supervisory role over the research.



4. The Graduate School Representative is a voting member of the committee who must have no conflict of interest (such as budgetary relationships or adjunct appointments) with the department of either the student or the supervisory committee chair.



5. Members may be added at any time.



6. The Graduate School guidelines on the Supervisory Committee can be found in Graduate School Memorandum 13.
   

How to Set-up a Supervisory Committee

1. Consult with your Research Adviser about which faculty you should ask to serve on your Supervisory Committee. Your Supervisory Committee must have a minimum of five members, a majority of whom (including the Chair and the Graduate School Representative) must be members of the Graduate Faculty. The normal composition of a committee is as follows:
   
   
   • Research Adviser, who acts as Chair of the Supervisory Committee
   • One other faculty member from the same field
   • Second faculty member from the same field of physics, who is a theorist/experimentalist if the research topic is primarily an experimental/theoretical one
   • One other faculty member from a different area of physics
   • Faculty member, who acts as Graduate School Representative (GSR) of the Supervisory Committee
   • One member, other than the Chair, should be designated as a Mentor.  This can be one of the members listed above or an additional member of the committee.


2. Obtain the consent of the faculty to serve on your Committee
   
   
3. Fill in the form below

Requirement for a Mentor on your Committee

In order to encourage and facilitate mentoring of graduate students, the department (beginning Summer quarter 2009) requires that one member of the Supervisory Committee other than the Committee Chair be designated as a Mentor. This person should be entered into the "Member 1/Mentor" box in the form below.

The importance of effective mentoring is widely documented; for more information, as well as useful documents and resources, see the "Advising and Mentoring Program" web page.

The difference between advising and mentoring can be summarized as follows (drawn from graduate school documents): advising "focuses on the activities, requirements, and attainment of satisfactory progress through the steps needed to achieve a graduate degree," whereas mentoring "focuses on the human relationships, commitments, and resources that help graduate students find success and fulfillment in the academic and professional pursuits." Research Advisors certainly play an important mentoring as well as advising role, but the department thinks that it is important, as a minimum, to have another faculty member who explicitly takes on a mentoring role.  In addition, all students are encouraged to seek, as needed, further mentoring from others in the department (fellow students, postdoctoral researchers, staff) and the broader UW community

The Mentor on your Committee should agree to take on some responsibility to look out for your overall professional health during your time here doing research.  There are no hard and fast rules about mentoring, but it might involve the faculty member seeking you out proactively on an occasional (but regular) basis to discuss your progress and needs.  He or she would also be available as a friendly and supportive sounding board, offering constructive criticism, suggesting contacts as needed, and helping you think about future career options.

As for all potential members of your Committee, you should meet with potential Mentors to discuss expectations.  For the Mentor, however, the conversation should include discussion of your expectations concerning mentoring. In this regard, the worksheets at the end of the above-mentioned guides could be useful models.

Physics Department Course Requirements

The department requires that students complete the first-year classes (or obtain a waiver from the GPC), and that each student who took the qualifying examination for the first time in September 2004 or later satisfy a breadth requirement. The latter consists of at least two elective courses in physics areas outside the area of the student's thesis research. These courses are ordinarily taken before the General Exam, but can be taken afterward with approval from the GPC. For more information see here (pdf)

In the boxes below, please indicate which of the required classes you have taken and which of the courses that you have taken that you are using to satisfy the breadth requirement. Use the "comments" box to note required courses for which you obtained a waiver and to describe any electives that you plan to take to satisfy the breadth requirement but have not yet taken. Please include the quarter in which you plan to take the class.

Please also use the "comments" box to add any additional relevant information

Your Name :        

Your Student #:   

Your Email:         

First Year Courses (Check those you have taken):

501        513         519
502        514         524
503        515         528
505        517
511        518

Courses which you have taken which satisfy breadth requirement (Enter course number):

Course #1
Course #2

Comments:

When do you plan to take your General Exam?   Quarter Autumn      Winter      Spring      Summer      Year      2005      2006      2007      2008      2009      2010      2011      2012     

Your Supervisory Committee:

Chair:                   
Research Group / Department:  

Member 1:
Research Group / Department:  

Member 2:            
Research Group / Department:  

Member 3:            
Research Group / Department:  

Member 4:            
Research Group / Department:  

GSR:                   
Research Group / Department:  

Mentor:               
                            (Must be listed above as a member of the committee)