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This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering

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Graduate Programs in Chemical Engineering

The Ph.D. degree is awarded after the completion of a minimum of 135 units of graduate work as well as satisfactory completion of any additional University requirements and the following departmental requirements. Completion of an M.S. degree is not a prerequisite for beginning, pursuing, or completing doctoral work.

Unit and Course Requirements—A minimum of 135 completed units, including a minimum of 45 units of lecture course work, is required for the Ph.D. degree. The following courses are required: 300, 310A, 340, 345, and 355, plus two courses in the 440, 450, or 460 series. These are to be taken at Stanford, and any petition to substitute another graduate-level course for any of these core courses must be approved by the chair. The remaining lecture courses may be chosen from graduate-level science and engineering lecture courses in any department and, by petition to the chair, from upper-division undergraduate lecture courses in the sciences and engineering. Three units of 699 may be included in the required 45 units of lecture courses. Additionally, 1, 2, or 3 units of seminar courses such as 459 may be substituted for up to 3 units of the lecture course work requirement, but not for any of the specified CHEMENG courses above. All proposals for Ph.D. course work must be approved by the student's adviser and the department chair or his designee. Students admitted to Ph.D. candidacy should enroll each quarter in the 500 series, 600, and 699 as appropriate and as study list unit limits permit. Predoctoral students have the option of petitioning for a M.S. degree program to be added to their graduate record. When the petition is approved, students may apply for M.S. degree conferral once the requirements for that degree have been fulfilled (see the "Master of Science in Chemical Engineering" section in this bulletin). The M.S. degree must be awarded within the University's time limit for completion of a master's degree.

Minimum Grade Requirement—Any course intended to satisfy the Ph.D. degree requirements must be taken for a letter grade, if offered. An overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 must be maintained for these courses.

Qualifying Examination—To be advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree, the student must pass both parts of the qualifying examination. The first part is held at the beginning of Spring Quarter, or the third quarter of study, and the first-year student is asked to make an oral presentation to the faculty of a critical review of a published paper. This preliminary examination, in addition to performance in courses and during research rotations, is the basis for determining whether or not a first-year student may be allowed to choose a research adviser and to begin doctoral research work immediately. Failure in this first part of the qualifying examination normally leads to termination of a student's study towards the Ph.D. degree; however, the student may continue to work toward an M.S. degree (see the "Master of Science in Chemical Engineering" section of this bulletin). It also precludes any financial aid beyond that already awarded. Students who pass the preliminary examination take the second part of the qualifying examination at the beginning of their second year, or the fifth quarter. This second examination before the faculty is an oral presentation and defense of their current research work. Students who pass both examinations must promptly submit Application for Candidacy for Doctoral Degree forms approved by their research advisers and at the same time establish and meet with their doctoral dissertation reading committees.

Reading Committee Requirement—All Ph.D. candidates are required to assemble reading committees and to have an initial committee meeting by the end of their seventh quarter. Reading committee meetings are not examinations; they are intended to be discussion sessions, to help focus and guide the dissertation project. Following the initial committee meeting, additional meetings must take place no less than once per year until all the requirements for the Ph.D. degree are satisfied. The department encourages students to take advantage of the benefits of more frequent meetings with their entire reading committee as a group. It is the student's responsibility to schedule committee meetings and to report the meeting dates to the student services manager.

Teaching Requirement—Teaching experience is considered an essential component of doctoral training. All Ph.D. candidates, regardless of the source of their financial support, are required to assist in the teaching of a minimum of two chemical engineering courses.

Dissertation and Oral Defense Requirements—A dissertation based on a successful investigation of a fundamental problem in chemical engineering is required. Within approximately five calendar years after enrolling in the department, students are expected to have fulfilled all the requirements for this degree, including the completion of dissertations approved by their research advisers. Upon adviser approval, copies of the final draft of a dissertation must be distributed to each reading committee member. No sooner than three weeks after this distribution, students may schedule University oral examinations. The examination is a dissertation defense, based on the candidate's dissertation research, and is in the form of a public seminar followed by a private examination by the faculty on the student's oral examination committee. Satisfactory performance in the oral examination and acceptance of an approved dissertation by Graduate Degree Progress, Office of the University Registrar, leads to Ph.D. degree conferral.

COGNATE COURSES FOR ADVANCED DEGREES IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

In addition to elective CHEMENG graduate courses in the 200 and 400 series, the following is a partial list of frequently selected elective courses in other departments by students pursuing advanced degrees in chemical engineering. The list is divided into five focus areas.

Broadly Applicable—

APPPYHYS 207. Laboratory Electronics (3 units)

CHEM 221. Advanced Organic Chemistry (3 units)

CHEM 271. Advanced Physical Chemistry (Quantum Mechanics) (3 units)

CHEM 273. Advanced Physical Chemistry (Angular Momentum, etc.) (3 units)

EE 261. The Fourier Transform and its Applications (3 units)

EE 268. Introduction to Modern Optics (3 units)

MS&E 234. Organizations and Information Systems (4 units)

STATS 200. Statistical Inference (3 units)

Biochemistry and Bioengineering focus, e.g. with CHEMENG 281, 283, 454, 456—

BIO 203. Advanced Genetics (human)

BIO 217. Neuronal Biophysics (4 units)

BIOC 133. Genetics of Prokaryotes (3 units; needs approval of chair.)

BIOE 331. Protein Engineering (3 units)

BIOPHYS/SBIO 228. Computational Structural Biology (3 units)

BIOPHYS/SBIO 241. Biologic Macromolecules (3-5 units)

CBIO 241. Molecular, Cellular, and Genetics Basis of Cancer (3 units)

CEE 274. Environmental Microbiology I & II (3 units each)

MCP 256. How Cells Work: Energetics, Compartments, and Coupling in Cell Biology (4 units)

MPHA 210. Signal Transduction Pathways and Networks (4 units)

MPHA 240. Drug Discovery (4 units)

MPHA 260. Quantitative Chemical Biology (4 units)

SBIO 228. Computational Structural Biology (3 units)

SBIO 241. Biological Macromolecules (3-5 units)

Fluid Mechanics, Applied Mathematics, and Numerical Analysis focus, e.g. with CHEMENG 462—

AA 218. Introduction to Symmetry Analysis (3 units)

CME 200. Linear Algebra with Application to Engineering Computations (3 units)

CME 204. Partial Differential Equations in Engineering (3 units)

CME 206. Introduction to Numerical Methods for Engineering (3 units)

CME 212. Introduction to Large-Scale Computing in Engineering (3 units)

CME 332. Computational Methods for Scientific Reasoning and Discovery (3 units)

CME 340. Computational Methods in Data Mining (3 units)

ME 338A. Continuum Mechanics (3 units)

ME 351A. Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

ME 457. Fluid Flow in Microdevices (3 units)

ME 469A. Computational Methods in Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

Materials Science focus, e.g. with CHEMENG 260, 442, 460, 461, 464, 466—

MATSCI 210. Organic and Biomaterials (3 units)

MATSCI 251. Microstructure and Mechanical Properties (3 units)

MATSCI 316. Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (3 units)

MATSCI 343. Organic Semiconductors for Electronics and Photonics (3 units)

MATSCI 380. Molecular Biomaterials (3 units)

Microelectronics focus, e.g. with CHEMENG 240—

AA 218. Introduction to Symmetry Analysis (3 units)

CME 200. Linear Algebra with Application to Engineering Computation (3 units)

CME 204. Partial Differential Equations in Engineering (3 units)

CME 206. Introduction to Numerical Methods for Engineering (3 units)

CME 212. Introduction to Large-Scale Computing in Engineering (3 units)

CME 332. Computational Methods for Scientific Reasoning and Discovery (3 units)

CME 340. Computational Methods in Data Mining

ME 338A. Continuum Mechanics (3 units)

ME 351. Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

ME 457. Fluid Flow in Microdevices (3 units)

ME 469A. Computational Methods in Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

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