Each student admitted to the PhD program in Chemical Engineering will initially be designated a Doctoral Student. Upon successful completion of the requirements for Doctoral Candidacy as described below, a student is re-classified as a Doctoral Candidate. After a student has established candidacy, s/he must complete a program of academic coursework and a Dissertation under the direction of a Dissertation Adviser. All Doctoral Candidates must also pass a Final Oral Examination.

Qualifying Examination
To qualify for Doctoral candidacy, a student must, through performance in coursework, demonstrate mastery of the four core areas of Chemical Engineering: Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Transport, and Mathematics. A student must attain a minimum 3.500 QPA in the following courses:

CHE G320 Chemical Engineering Mathematics
CHE G330 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
CHE G340 Chemical Engineering Kinetics
CHE G350 Transport Phenomena

Students generally complete this coursework requirement in the first year of residence. Each student must also demonstrate critical thinking, analysis, and experimental planning skills related to their Dissertation research topic through an Oral Proposal Defense. The student must pass, as determined by the student’s Dissertation Committee, this Oral Proposal Defense of the Dissertation research proposal. A student must present this proposal to the Chemical Engineering faculty the semester following the completion of the above coursework.

The Oral Proposal Defense comprises a written Dissertation proposal and an oral defense of that proposal, usually presented during the summer of the first year of residence. The proposal must include the problem definition, a critical review of the literature, the research goals, a proposed experimental plan, and a methodology for the analysis of results. The format of the document should match that of the final Dissertation, as described in the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Guidebook (available in the Chemical Engineering department), as much as feasible. One month prior to the Oral Proposal Defense, the student must set the time and location of the defense in order to ensure that a quorum of faculty, as well as the full Dissertation Committee (as described in the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Guidebook), may attend. In addition, two weeks prior to the Oral Proposal Defense, the student must do the following:

1. Submit to all Chemical Engineering faculty and Dissertation Committee members a 25-page Dissertation Proposal Digest that summarizes the proposed work;
2. Place three copies of the full Dissertation Proposal in the Chemical Engineering main office to be available to faculty; and
3. Submit the full Dissertation Proposal to the Dissertation Committee.

All Oral Proposal Defense presentations are open to students, faculty, and to the student’s Dissertation Committee. The Committee and any interested faculty may stay after the general audience is dismissed to further examine the student’s proposed work. The Committee gives the final approval to the student’s Oral Proposal Defense, and will sign a proposal approval sheet (Appendix B, Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Guidebook) upon successful completion of the Oral Proposal Defense. This indicates approval of the Dissertation topic and its plan of execution.

Course Requirements
All Doctoral Candidates must complete a minimum of forty-six semester hours of academic coursework beyond the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. Additional coursework may be required of those who enter the program with a different degree. In this case, such coursework is determined by the Graduate Committee upon the student’s admission to Northeastern University. The forty-six semester hours must include at least eighteen semester hours of coursework (exclusive of seminars) taken at Northeastern, and must include all of the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering required core courses.

Upon successful completion of the requirements for Doctoral Candidacy, each Candidate must register in two consecutive semesters for CHE G890 Dissertation. Upon completion of this sequence, the Candidate must register for CHE G899 Dissertation Continuation in every semester until the Dissertation is complete. Students may not register for Continuation until they fulfill the two-semester Dissertation sequence.

Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree. However, each Candidate must be proficient in technical writing and oral presentation in the English language. The Graduate Committee may require additional coursework to improve language proficiency if necessary.

Residence Requirement
A student satisfies the residence requirement by completing one academic year of full-time graduate studies during two consecutive academic semesters after qualifying for Doctoral Candidacy. Additional required coursework (exclusive of seminars) may be completed during this period.

Dissertation
After a student establishes Doctoral Candidacy, s/he must complete a Dissertation that embodies the results of extended original research and includes material suitable for publication. In most cases, the Dissertation topic is chosen immediately after the student has established Doctoral Candidacy. Each Candidate is expected to discuss Dissertation topics with the faculty. After these discussions, students shall notify the Dissertation Adviser, the Department Chair, and the Chair of the Graduate Committee in writing of their choice of Dissertation topic and Adviser. The Chair of the Graduate Committee, after consultation with the Dissertation Adviser, shall appoint an appropriate Doctoral Dissertation Committee. The Candidate must keep this Committee informed of the progress of the Dissertation. The Dissertation Committee will approve the Dissertation in its final form.

Comprehensive Examination
The Comprehensive Examination is combined with the final oral examination and is given after the Dissertation is complete and approved by the Dissertation Adviser. This exam is based upon a defense of the subject matter of the Dissertation.

Final Oral Examination
A Doctoral Candidate takes the final oral exam after completion of all other requirements for the degree. The exam will include the subject matter of the Dissertation and significant developments in the field of the Dissertation work. Other fields may be included if recommended by the examination committee.

Departure Prior to Dissertation Completion
Occasionally students have left the Chemical Engineering department prior to completion of all degree requirements. In such instances, long time intervals have often elapsed before Dissertation or manuscript submission. Accordingly, the department has adopted the guideline that a student cannot submit a Dissertation for credit beyond three years after s/he stops actively pursuing the research. Exceptions may be granted upon petition to the department Graduate Committee. Petitions must demonstrate extenuating circumstances and prove that the research is still of value to the profession.