



 |
 |
 |

Graduate Program
Doctoral Program
A student enters the doctoral program upon
faculty recommendation after passing the Ph.D. comprehensive examination.
Upon entering the doctoral program, each student shall select a field
of specialization and establish a working relationship with a member of
the faculty. With the approval of a faculty member, who normally shall
be the principal advisor, the student shall inform the Chairperson of
his/her major field selection and the Chairperson shall appoint a faculty
Doctoral Committee consisting of at least two full-time faculty members
to advise and direct the student through the remainder of his or her graduate
studies.
Requirements
Required courses for the doctorate are the following: PH 722,
PH 733, PH 742, PH 707-708, and four additional courses in distinct
areas outside the student's research specialty chosen from the graduate
electives of the department or from other graduate departments with the
approval of the Chairperson. PH 761 and PH 771
are strongly recommended as two of these four courses.
Some teaching or equivalent educational experience is required. This requirement
may be satisfied by at least one year of service as a teaching assistant
or by suitable teaching duties. Arrangements are made with each student
for a teaching program best suited to his or her overall program of studies.
Comprehensive Examinations
Within one year of entering the graduate program, each student will take
the comprehensive examination, usually offered each September. In principle,
this examination covers all of physics that a physics graduate student
can be expected to know at the end of one year of formal course work in
the curriculum; however, it will stress classical mechanics, electromagnetism,
quantum mechanics, and statistical physics. The examination has both a
written and an oral part. The examination is prepared and administered
by a faculty committee, appointed by the Chairperson, and the examination
is evaluated by this committee with approval of the entire graduate faculty
of the department. Students may attempt this examination twice.
Research and thesis
After passing the comprehensive examination, a student's principal activity
is research. Normally, within a year after passing the comprehensive examination,
the student shall take the Research Proposal Examination. The purpose
of this examination is for the student to demonstrate knowledge of his/her
area of research specialization and to expose the topic of his/her proposed
thesis to scrutiny for its soundness and scientific merit. This will be
done at a public meeting. The examination will be evaluated by the student's
doctoral committee, and the results reported to the Chairperson and recorded
in the student's file. Upon the student's satisfactory performance in
this examination, the Chairperson shall recommend to the dean the appointment
of a doctoral thesis committee consisting of at least three department
members (including the student's Doctoral Committee) and an external examiner,
where feasible, to read and evaluate the completed thesis and to conduct
an open meeting at which the thesis is defended in an oral examination.
The thesis is accepted when endorsed on the official title page by the
Doctoral Thesis Committee after the oral examination.
|
 |


 |
| |
 |
BC Physics Chair, Prof. Michael Naughton appointed as the Evelyn J. & Robert A. Ferris Professor of Physics
BC Chronicle>>|Norwood Bulletin>>
|
|
| |
 |
Two New Faculty to Join Physics Department in January 2010
MORE>>
|
|
| |
 |
Summer of Science and Condensed Matter Physics
BC News Release >>
|
|
| |
 |
Physics Alumnus Prof. H.I. Smith Is to Receive BC 2009 Award for Professional Excellence
MORE>>
|
|
| |
 |
The Guiding of Light: Metamaterials Provide a New Roadmap to Steer Electromagnetic Waves
MORE>>
|
|
| |
 |
Physics of Stretching Salt: Physics Prof. K. Kempa Comments on New Findings from SNL
Science News Magazine>>
|
|
| |
 |
Department News Archive
MORE>>
|
|
 |
|