Requirements: All students are required to take Ch E 615, 620, and 625, and all full-time students are required to take one credit of journal club/seminar (Ch E 796) for each semester enrolled. The research advisor, in conjunction with an advisory and examining committee (AEC) to be designated by each student, will be responsible for following departmentalguidelines to determine the plan of study appropriate to the student's program.
A written research proposal and oral presentation of this proposal is required of all M.S. students. This oral defense is administered by the student's AEC and must be completed by the end of the second semester of the first year for M.S.Ch.E candidates, and as soon as possible but not later than the end of the second semester of the second year for M.S.E. candidates.
Final Examination: All students are required to pass a final oral examination, administered by their AEC, covering both the thesis or problem report (depending on the program selected) and related course material.
Requirements: All B.S. students entering the Ph.D. program are required to take Ch E 615, 620, and 625, while M.S. students entering the program must demonstrate equivalent courses taken for graduate credit. In addition, all full-time students must take one credit of seminar/journal club (Ch E 796) each semester. For a student admitted directly after the B.S. degree, the Ph.D. program consists of a minimum of 36 course credit hours, excluding research (Ch E 797) and seminar/journal club (Ch E 796). If the student has an M.S. in chemical engineering from WVU, the program consists of a minimum of 12 course credit hours (excluding Ch E 797 and Ch E 796). If the student has an M.S. in chemical engineering from another institution, the program consists of a minimum of 18 course credit hours (excluding Ch E 797 and Ch E 796). Students must complete a minor consisting of a minimum of nine semester hours of a coherent set of courses taken outside of the department. These courses may be related to the major research area. Nontechnical courses are considered only under exceptional circumstances. Courses at the 400 level may be acceptable. All courses must be approved by the AEC and the academic advisor. Students must complete graduate courses with an overall course work average of 3.0 or better (exclusive of research credits) and complete all Ch E courses with an overall grade-point average of 3.0 (exclusive of research credits). A minimum of 24 credit hours in dissertation research is required. Also, two semesters of full-time attendance at the Morgantown campus is required to complete the residency requirement.
Examinations: All students must pass the Ph.D. qualifying examination given in their first year at WVU. This examination is designed to assess the basic competency of students in the chemical engineering field to determine whether or not they have sufficient knowledge to undertake independent research.
Within twelve months of passing the qualifying examination or of entering the Ph.D. program, whichever is later, the student must successfully defend an original research proposition in an oral examination. The written proposition, developed by the student alone, remains the intellectual property of the student and must be on a topic unrelated to the student's own research work for the dissertation.
Research Proposal: A student must receive acceptance of a written dissertation research proposal and must also successfully defend this proposal to the student's AEC. This requirement must be completed within six months of passing the qualifying examination or of entering the Ph.D. program, whichever is later. The research work for the doctoral dissertation should show a high order of originality on the part of the student and must offer an original contribution to the field of engineering science.
A student who has successfully completed all course work, passed the qualifying examination, and successfully defended the original research proposition and research proposal is defined as one who is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree.
In order to complete the Ph.D. requirements, a student must pass a final oral examination on the results embodied in the dissertation. This examination is open to the public and, in order to evaluate critically the student's competency, may include testing on material in related fields, as deemed necessary by the AEC. In addition, since the Ph.D. degree is primarily a research degree that embodies the results of an original research proposal and represents a significant contribution to scientific literature, the student must submit a manuscript on this research to the AEC.
