Thesis Committees

Each doctoral candidate of the SFB 956 is supervised in his/her research work by a principal supervisor.  In addition the work is supervised by a personal standing thesis committee composed of one or two other independent colleagues who have preferably scientific expertise in the field. The thesis committee supervises the scientific development of the doctoral candidate by monitoring the progress of the research work as well as the general training of the candidate.

It is the responsibility of the doctoral candidate to organize thesis committee meetings.

The thesis committee will meet for the first time latest 6 months after the doctoral candidate has started his work. Afterwards the committee will meet at least once per year for discussion and review. 

These meetings ensure that the:

• doctoral candidate gets the best possible support from his/her supervisor

• thesis project is sufficiently well defined and manageable in the course of three years

• project management and planning are in time

• project is reasonably well on schedule, and if not, to discuss how to fix that

• doctoral candidate can access all necessary data, numerical and experimental equipment, etc.

• doctoral candidate trains him/herself in the art of scientific presentation at internal occasions as well as at international conference

• doctoral candidate obtains international visibility via publications, conference participations and collaborations

• doctoral candidate, toward the end of the second year, is starting to think of – and prepare for – his/her career after the doctorate

Formal details on organizing these meetings can be found in the thesis committee instructions below.

Doctoral Program information and forms for download: