The doctoral dissertation (or thesis) is completed under the direction of a thesis advisor, who must be a member of the Mathematics graduate faculty.
(Note that the graduate faculty includes some Rutgers faculty who are not in the department of Mathematics.) The thesis must be approved by a faculty committee of (at least) four members, one of which is an ''outside member". Formally, the outside member is nominated by the thesis advisor, and approved by the Graduate Program Director, and the Graduate School. Members of the Graduate Faculty of Mathematics (even those with appointments in other departments) are not eligible to be outside committee members.
Each student, in consultation with his or her advisor should constitute the thesis committee. It is recommended that the committee should be constituted on or around the time that the student begins his or her research. Committee members can serve as additional resources for the student during their research.
The names of the committee members should be provided to the graduate secretary at least two months before the thesis defense.
Normally, the student should provide a draft of the thesis to each committee member at least one month before the date of the defense. Some committee members may require a draft earlier than that. The student should discuss this with each committee member well in advance of the defense date to be sure that the committee member's requirements in this regard are known.
For more details about the dissertation and dissertation defense, see the Ph.D. Dissertation page.
