PhD

Most of our PhD students are members of one of the various PhD programs in the framework of the “Life Science Zurich Graduate School”.

Life Science Zurich Graduate School:

external page http://www.lifescience-graduateschool.ch/

PhD thesis committee

For each PhD student, a thesis committee serves as a scientific advisory board throughout the PhD work. Committee members give comments, advice and support to students in order to ensure that the thesis can be completed in an appropriate time frame and with the best possible outcome. In addition to the student’s own research group, the thesis committee provides an independent forum for scientific discussion. Moreover, the thesis committee might help in solving points of disagreement between the student and the supervisor. Finally, the thesis committee can help the supervisor to define the end of the thesis.

The thesis committee should be defined when starting the PhD work and when the project has been decided as a joint decision between the supervisor and PhD student. The committee should be composed of at least two scientists who have an expertise in the scientific field or related area. Thesis members often work in and around Zurich, but this is not exclusive. Costs for travel of thesis committee members are paid by the supervisor.

The student should meet with the committee at least once per year and committee meeting organization is the student's responsibility. Committee meetings generally start with a presentation by the PhD student of their work, followed by a discussion of the data, problems, and future perspectives. The thesis committee generally writes a short report about each meeting to the Director of the PhD program.

Members of the thesis committee can eventually become “Koreferent” for the thesis. The decision whether somebody can be suggested as a “Koreferent” is made by the Doktoratsausschuss of D-Biol.