Introduction

The Ph.D. program in Applied Chemistry started at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus in January 2004. The program was approved by the Puerto Rico Council on Higher Education on December 18, 2003 through certification #2003-191. The program currently has two areas of research: biophysical chemistry and chemistry of materials.

Program Requirements

Placement Tests

Placement tests will be offered one to two weeks before the start of doctoral studies (first semester). Students will take five placement tests to evaluate their knowledge at the undergraduate level in: analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry. The placement tests are multiple choice exams prepared by the American Chemical Society (ACS) to evaluate knowledge of undergraduate level topics. Students are not required to take the Biochemistry test if they have not taken this class.

The main objective of the placement test is to measure knowledge of chemistry and to encourage students to review and prepare for graduate study before starting the Doctoral Program. The exams will assist the faculty in assessing the students’ strengths and weaknesses. The faculty will provide the students with recommendations for addressing deficiencies.

The placement tests are also used by the Graduate Committee to assess whether credits from the students M.S. program may be transferred towards the Ph.D. degree. This procedure is discussed below in the section “Transfer of Courses from M.S. Degree”.

Student’s Graduate Studies Committee

Certificación 97-21 requires that students establish their Graduate Studies committee during their first semester in the program. This committee should be constituted by professors related to the student’s research project. This committee will consist of 4 to 6 persons, at least half of whom must belong to the student’s program. Professors from other institutions and government or industrial scientists may also belong to the committee, but they must receive an ad honorem appointment (Certificación 02-45). The documents required by this certification must be submitted to the Chemistry Personnel Committee for approval.

All Ph.D. faculty members of the Department may serve as research advisor (President) of the student’s Graduate Studies Committee. Students may also choose a research advisor from another department of UPR-Mayagüez Campus, but these advisors must be approved by the Departmental Graduate Committee and the Chemistry Department Personnel Committee. Appendix II includes the form that must be completed in the selection of a research advisor.

According to Certificación 97-21, the students’ Graduate Studies committee should meet periodically to evaluate his academic progress, the evolution of the thesis or research project, and to provide advice.

Plan of Study

The student will prepare a Plan of Study in consultation with his Graduate Studies committee. The Plan of Study should be turned in to the Registrar (with a copy to the Office of Graduate Studies) during the second semester in the program. The Registrar’s Office will evaluate requests for graduation by checking whether the student has completed the courses listed in the Plan of Study.

The Plan of Study lists the courses that students will take, and is an excellent planning tool for the student and the research advisor. It also helps the Department Director in determining the courses to offer in the future.

The Plan of Study documents previous graduate level courses accredited towards the Ph.D. degree by the Graduate Committee. The courses will not be accredited until the Plan of Study is submitted and approved by the Department Director.

Research Proposal

The student shall present a written proposal for research that defines his doctoral thesis project, and will defend it orally in front of the thesis committee.

The research proposal requirement involves two very important activities. The first is the preparation of the proposal, and the second is its defense before the student’s committee. The preparation of the proposal is a requirement of our Program and also of the Graduate Studies Office (Certificación 97-21). A copy of the approved proposal should be presented to the Graduate Studies Office, and the form in Appendix IV should be used as its heading. The oral proposal defense is not required by Certificación 97-21 but is required by the Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry program. The oral defense will be carried out following the Normas para la Administración de Exámenes Orales a Estudiantes Graduados included in Appendix III.

Students should start to prepare the research proposal as soon as they register for research (QUIM 8998). Although Certificación 97-21 requires completion of the research proposal before the second time that a student registers for research, current practice allows doctoral students to register twice in thesis research before turning in their research proposals. If a student registers for a third time in thesis research without handing in the proposal, the Office of Graduate Studies will send a letter three weeks after registration and will provide some extra time to hand in the proposal: three weeks in August 2005, two weeks in January 2006, and one week in August 2006. No additional time will be given thereafter. It is strongly recommended that students complete their research proposals during their second enrollment in QUIM 8998, to avoid the serious consequences of missing this deadline. The Registrar will post a W in QUIM 8998 (withdraw students from this course) for those students that do not turn in the proposal. If research (QUIM 8998) is the only course for which a student is registered, then he is no longer a UPR-Mayagüez student and is not eligible for assistantships. If the student is taking other courses, he may continue taking those courses but becomes a part-time student after receiving the W and also not eligible to receive an assistantship.

The student’s Graduate Studies committee and the research advisor will advice the student in the preparation of the research proposal. In addition, the Graduate Studies Office has a Guía para la Preparación de Propuestas, Tesis e Informes de Proyecto en el Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (http://grad.uprm.edu/normastesis.htm). The Graduate Committee is working on a guide for the preparation of this proposal. Until this guide is completed students should consult their research advisors and committee members on the content and precise format of their proposals. The content and precise format of the research proposals will be determined by each individual Graduate Studies committee until the Graduate Committee establishes a format.

The Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry program and Certificación 97-21 do not require that students include research results in the proposal.

Students should notify the date and time of their defense to the Graduate Coordinator, who will notify students and professors. The form in Appendix V should be completed after approval of the student’s oral defense. The completed form should be turned in to the Graduate Coordinator’s office.

After the oral defense, the student’s research advisor will provide the student with a letter summarizing the recommendations of his Graduate Studies committee. This letter should be delivered to the student within one month after completion of the oral defense. The letter should also indicate a time frame for the committee to meet with the student and evaluate the student’s progress. For example, for the first three oral defenses that were celebrated the Graduate studies committees agreed to meet within a period of 6 – 8, 10 – 12, and 10 – 14 months, respectively. The Graduate Coordinator should receive a copy of this letter.

Doctoral Exam

After approving the courses (excluding the doctoral seminar) the student should pass a doctoral exam that measures knowledge at the graduate level. This should happen during the third year of studies. The exam will be offered in August and in January. It will consist of questions previously agreed upon by a committee that will be designated by the coordinator of the program according to the student’s area of specialty. In the event of a failure, the exam may be repeated once, as specified in Certificación 97-21.

Students who fail the exam a second time will be suspended as indicated in Certificación 97-21.

Internship or Practicum

Every student will work one semester or four months in an academic, industrial, or government lab outside the UPR-Mayagüez campus. Since the department does not have funds to subsidize the internship, research advisors and the graduate students must seek funding for the internship through grants or scholarships.

It is recommended that the four month period be flexible, but cumulative to include a period of at least four months. This period may be distributed as follows:

1. A period of four months without interruption.

2. Two summer terms.

3. A maximum of three weeks in workshops related to the students research, and research experience to meet the four month period.

It is recommended that the Practicum be carried out during the summer since it should be easier to program and find housing for students. The Practicum should not consist of routine work in an academic or industrial environment, it should contribute to the student’s research project. Attendance to scientific meetings will not be counted as an activity to meet the Practicum requirement, and professional experience in industry will not be accepted.

Appendix VI provides a form to be completed prior to the internship by the professor at the host institution, and by the student’s research advisor. It is recommended that this form as well as travel permission forms and insurance requirements be completed two months in advance of the practicum.

After returning from the Practicum, students must present a progress report, make a presentation in the Graduate Seminar or in a scientific conference such as the Puerto Rico Senior Technical meeting and receive a formal evaluation from the Practicum supervisor or host.

Upon approval of the report, the President of the students Graduate Studies committee will submit a letter (similar to that in Appendix VII) to the Graduate Coordinator, informing him of the completion of this requirement.

Research

The student should perform independent research that represents a significant contribution to furthering knowledge in their specialty area. Students will be required two accepted publications before defending their doctoral dissertation.

The dissertation defense will be scheduled at least 30 days after students turn in their dissertation should be turned to the Graduate Studies Office.

Candidacy

The student will be considered a Doctor of Philosophy candidate when he or she successfully completes all courses listed in the students Plan of Study, successfully defend the research proposal and pass the doctoral exam.

Transfer of Courses from M.S. Degree

The Graduate Committee will evaluate requests for transfer of courses from previous graduate work towards the Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry.

The Graduate Committee has approved the transfer towards the Ph.D. degree of up to 15 credit hours from the previous M.S. program of UPR-Mayagüez students. A grade of A or B is required for course transfer. The transferred courses may include the 9 credit hours in core courses required for the Ph.D. degree, but students must take the corresponding ACS Placement exams to obtain approval for the transfer of the core courses. Doctoral students must score at least the average USA score in these tests to obtain transfer of their core courses. Students who do not achieve the minimum score will be allowed to repeat the ACS tests. Students may take this test an unlimited number of times, or may elect not to seek transfer of the core course.

Courses:

The PhD program is Applied Chemistry consists of a minimum of 52 credits, of which up to 18 may be in thesis research. In addition:

A. No more than 9 credits can be at the 5000 level

B. A minimum of 9 credits will be required in areas outside of the specialty.

C. The minimum grade point average required will be 3.00.

D. Requests for transfer of credits to the doctoral program, be it from Masters programs or others, will be evaluated by Departmental Graduate Committee.

Courses in Areas of Chemistry:

A. Biophysical Chemistry (two courses required):

QUIM 6016 - Biophysical Chemistry, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 6009 – Spectroscopy of Biological Molecules, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 6XXX – Research Methods in Biophysical Chemistry, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 8XXX - Special Subjects in Biophysical Chemistry, 1 – 3 credit hours.

B. Chemistry of Materials (two courses required):

QUIM 6216 – Surface Analytical Chemistry, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 6707 – Solid State Chemistry, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 6XXX- Computer Simulations Applied to Materials Science, 3 credit hours.
QUIM 8XXX- Special Subjects in Chemistry of Materials, 1 – 3 credit hours.

Recommended Courses and Electives by Area of Specialty – 15 credit hours of which at least 6 should be in courses in the area of specialty. The student should take these courses after consulting with his research advisor.

The Graduate Coordinator has a list of other courses which the student may take. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the Program the student may take one or more courses outside the Department and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Course Distribution

Core Courses (3 courses @ 3 credit hours) – 9 credit hours
Grade Requirements – 28 credit hours.
Recommended Courses and Electives by Area of Specialty – 15 credit hours.

Core courses (3 courses of 3 credit hours):

QUIM 6401 – Advanced Organic Chemistry
QUIM 6605 – Advanced Physical Chemistry
QUIM 6215 – Advanced Analytical Chemistry
QUIM 6011 – Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
QUIM 6715 – Advanced Biochemistry.

Grade Requirements:

QUIM 6705 – Supervised Teaching of Chemistry – 3 credit hours.
QUIM 8008 – Scientific Communication in Chemistry – 3 credit hours.
QUIM 8XXX – Doctoral Seminar – 1 credit hour
QUIM 8999 – Research -- 18 credit hours.

And one of the following courses to develop business and management skills:

GERE 6025 – Organizational Behavior – 3 credit hours.
GERH 6027 – Legal Aspect of Business Organization – 3 credit hours.
GERH 6037 – Wage and Salary Administration – 3 credit hours.

Financial Assistance

Assistantships

Graduate students may receive teaching or research assistanships. Assistanstships are not considered a job or employment. Assistantships are stipends offered for a number of tasks that serve to train a student towards a career in teaching or research. Graduate students must maintain an overall grade point average of 3.0 to be academically eligible for assitanships. Assistanships may be renewed if the Department has funds, students comply with the assigned tasks, and continue to be eligible (3). Assistantships may be cancelled at any moment if the Department does not have funds, students do not fulfill the assigned tasks, or students are not eligible.

All graduate students with total or conditional admission may request assistanstships. Students who are suspended or on probation or have a job are not elegilbe for assistantships. Visiting students and those enrolled for professional improvement are also not elegible for assistanships. Some agencies provide scholarships for students, but request that they do not accept other forms of aid or assistantships. Students holding these scholarships are responsible for following the guidelines established by the funding agencies.

Students who receive assistanships must be registered in one of the following:

a. Not less than 9 credit hours in 5000 or higher level graduate courses.

b. QUIM 8998 (0-6 credit hours)

Graduate students don’t have to register to receive assistantships during the summer. For students with conditional admission, the 9 credit hours may include undergraduate level courses specified as defficiencies in their letter of admission to the program.

The maximum number of credit hours that a student may have in a semester is 18 credit hours (registered credits + assistantship credits). The maximum number of credit hours in an assistantship is 9 credit hours.

Students who hold a B.S. degree when they are admitted to the Ph.D. program will be elegible for assitantships for a period of up to 5 years (4). The 5 year period applies regardless of whether the funding comes from institutional or external funds. If justified the assistantship may be extended for up to 3 years, but only one year can be payed with instutional funds.

Students who hold an M.S. degree when they are admitted to the Ph.D. program will be elegible for assistantships for a period of up to three years. The 3 year period applies regardless of whether the funding comes from institutional or external funds. If justified the assistantship may be extended for up to 2 years, but only one year can be payed with instutional funds.

The extension of the period of assistantship requires the approval of the Director of the Graduate Studies Office, who will evaluate the request after receiving the recommendation for extension from the student’s research advisor and the Director of the Department (or Graduate Coordinator).