If you began your PhD program prior to Fall 2007, see Academic Services Office (ASO) regarding your program.

Requirements for Ph.D. Degree

• Required Credit Hours: 90 beyond the bachelor's degree
• Required: 18 hours EMA5000–6000 level courses with a minimum grade of C or better and must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 or above
• Maximum: 6 credits hours of coursework outside the Department; of these 3 credit hours may be an undergraduate course with a course number 3000–4999
• Maximum 8 credits EMA 6905 — Individual Work
• Maximum 5 credit hours EMA 6910 — Supervised Research

• Qualifying Exam
• Proposal Defense
• Admission to Candidacy
• Guidelines for PhD Dissertation Defense

Qualifying Exam

Item 1 is tested through a written exam, which you must take at the beginning of your first summer at UF. In addition, you must be registered as a student for the summer A or C semesters. Advanced Materials Principles 1 is taught in the fall semester and Advanced Materials 2 is taught in the spring semester. These courses are not required, and you may choose to study for the qualifying exam on your own without taking the courses.

The written exam is designed to take 2.5 hours, but you will be provided with 5 hours to complete it. The exam consists of 10 questions, of which you must answer 8. Questions will be graded solely on a pass/fail basis. You must pass 6 of the questions to pass the exam. If you do not pass on your first attempt, you may take the exam again at the beginning of the following fall semester. Note that the exam in the fall is only for students who have failed their first attempt in the summer. If you do not pass the second attempt you will not be admitted to PhD candidacy, which means you will not be able to obtain a PhD degree from our department.

Proposal Defense

Items 2 and 3 are tested by having you write and defend an original research proposal. The proposal topic can be related to your anticipated PhD dissertation research topic, but must contain original ideas/hypotheses/research plans independent of input from your advisor. The proposal serves to test the your ability to formulate a significant problem, to ask the right questions to solve that problem, apply the fundamentals to your problem, and to apply the correct tools to solve that problem.

Your supervisory committee must sign the proposal topic approval form before you write the proposal. You should give the written proposal to your committee at least one week before the defense date. At the proposal defense you will present your proposal and answer questions about your proposal from your committee. The committee may also question you on topics within your specialty that may not be directly part of the proposal, but which represent knowledge required within that specialty. The scope of this examination will be determined by the PhD committee (i.e., there is no list of required areas). You should discuss the scope of the proposal defense with your advisor if you have any questions.

Passing of the proposal requires a unanimous vote of the committee. The proposal will be graded solely on a pass/fail basis. Passing can not be subject to any additional conditions, such as additional coursework. If you fail the proposal defense, you may make a second attempt. The second attempt must occur in the semester following the first attempt. If you do not pass the second attempt you will not be admitted to PhD candidacy, which means you will not be able to obtain a PhD degree from our department.

Deadlines

The written exam must be taken at the beginning of your first summer as a PhD student in the Department Materials Science and Engineering. If you fail the first attempt, your second attempt must occur at the beginning of the following fall semester.

The first attempt at the proposal defense must be within 24 months of the date of the first day of classes of your first semester enrolled in MSE as a graduate student (even if you were initially enrolled as an MS student). If you do not pass the first attempt, the second attempt at the proposal defense must occur in the semester immediately after the first attempt.

These deadlines are absolute. If any of the deadlines are missed, you will not be admitted to PhD candidacy, which means you will not be able to obtain a PhD degree from our department.

Proposal Defense

Complete the on-line form at least five days prior to the defense, by following the directions below.

• Click on Forms
• Click on Admission to Candidacy in the SUPERVISORY COMMITTEES/DEFENSES section
• Fill out the form and submit online.

Proposal Defense Date

• Entire Supervisory Committee must attend and examine the student
• Two internal MSE members may be substituted if necessary
• On the day of the defense the student's file and faculty signature page must be picked up by a faculty member from the ASO and returned within 10 business days upon completion

Candidacy

• After successful completion of the written qualifying exam, topic approval and the proposal defense, a Ph.D. student will be admitted to candidacy
• A course correction changing all EMA7979 hours to EMA7980 must be filled out with ASO at the time of the passing of the proposal defense to be processed through the Graduate School and Registrar
  • If this is done prior to the midpoint of the semester, that term will count as your first term of PhD study
  • Registration for a minimum of two semesters in EMA7980 is required to complete the degree

Dissertation

• It is the student's responsibility to be aware of set deadline dates set by the graduate school
• Notify the ASO at least five days prior to any defense by following the directions below
  • Click on Forms
  • Click on Final Examinations (MS-Thesis or PhD) in the SUPERVISORY COMMITTEES/DEFENSES section
  • Fill out the form and submit online.
• Defense date
  • Entire supervisory committee must attend and examine the student
  • Chair and external may not be substituted
  • Two internal MSE members may be substituted if necessary
  • On the day of the defense the student's file and faculty signature page must be picked up by a faculty member from the ASO and returned upon completion
• Refer to the ETD website for submission information and current deadline dates. ETD site is located at http://gradschool.rgp.ufl.edu, then click on Graduate Editorial
• Original dissertation signature pages are processed in the ASO; you may request these via an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• It is the student's responsibility to obtain all of the signatures on the signature pages

M.D./Ph.D. Program

The M.D./Ph.D. program trains physician-scientists for a career in academic medicine and engineering. Students attend medical school for the first two years and initiate their graduate research in materials science during the third year. Completion of the dissertation typically spans three to four years. Afterwards, students return to the medical school for two years to complete their clinical training.

For additional information, please visit http://www.med.ufl.edu/md-phd