Introduction:

Your Supervisory Committee is a group of faculty members who will guide your research. Your committee is selected by you and will include your dissertation advisor, a Graduate School Representative (GSR) and 2-3 others.

Think of your committee as a resource. They are committed to helping you with any issues that arise during your time in graduate school.

Timeline:

Your committee should ideally be in place by the end of Autumn Quarter of your second year. Once you have your committee members lined up, please send their names to Brian Giebel so that he may set this up with the Graduate School.

Selecting your GSR:

One of your committee members is the Graduate School Representative, whose primary role is to act as your advocate in making sure exams are conducted fairly. For this reason, the GSR should have no direct connection to either this department or to your dissertation advisor. Genome Sciences core faculty may not serve as your GSR. If your dissertation advisor is from a different department, core faculty in neither that department nor Genome Sciences may serve as your GSR. Since this is basically an administrative role, your GSR need not be an expert in your specific research area.

Genome Sciences Affiliate and Adjunct faculty members may serve as the GSR. There is one important exception regarding Affiliate faculty members: if their primary (or joint) appointment is via Genome Sciences or your thesis advisor's department (if your thesis advisor is not based in Genome Sciences), they may not serve as your GSR. For example: a faculty member based at FHCRC whose primary UW appointment is via Biology or Biochemistry may serve as your GSR. A faculty member based at FHCRC whose primary (or joint) UW appointment is via Genome Sciences may not. Your GSR must also hold an endorsement to chair doctoral supervisory committees. You can check for this endorsement, as well as primary appointment status, using the Graduate Faculty locator.


Selecting other committee members:

Please consider the following requirements when considering potential committee members:

At least one member of your Supervisory Committee must be a core Genome Sciences faculty member (i.e. one of the first group of faculty listed on the GS faculty webpage). This can include your dissertation advisor, so if your advisor is a core Genome Sciences faculty member, you've already fulfilled this requirement.

The doctoral supervisory committee consists of a minimum of four members, at least three of whom (including the Chair & GSR) must be members of the Graduate Faculty with an endorsement to chair doctoral committees. You may check Graduate Faculty status & chair endorsements on the Graduate School's faculty locator. A majority of the voting members must be members of the Graduate Faculty (this is seldom a problem and would likely only arise if you have multiple committee members from outside the UW)..

Although not required, it is a good idea to add an additional committee member (bringing the total to 5) both for the added expertise, and to avoid scheduling problems, since the Graduate School requires that at least 4 members of your committee be present at your General and Final Exams.

Bonus Paperwork:

The University of Washington Graduate School requires all graduate students whose thesis research involves human or animal subjects to sign a form documenting that they have been advised of human and animal subjects guidelines. Specific questions regarding these guidelines should be directed to your thesis advisor. Forms should be signed and returned to Brian Giebel. This form is now required, when applicable, as part of setting up your supervisory committee.