PhD | Reading Committee

Overview

After passing the qualifying examination, a student must secure the agreement of a Department faculty member to act as the dissertation advisor. Typically, this is the program advisor. In some cases, the dissertation advisor may be in another department. In addition, the student must form a dissertation reading committee composed of the principal dissertation advisor and at least two additional readers.

Reading Committee

The Reading Committee Form should be signed by all the committee members and submitted to the CS PhD Student Services (phdstudentservices@cs.stanford.edu) no later than one year after passing a qualifying exam.

For any questions regarding your Reading Committee, please email phdstudentservices@cs.stanford.edu. Form/s should be submitted as a PDF and emailed to phdstudentservices@cs.stanford.edu. Jay Subramanian, Director of Graduation Admissions and PhD Program, approves all forms on behalf of the Department chair.

Regulations Concerning Composition of Reading Committee

• The principal advisor and at least one of the other committee members must be academic council members. This is a University regulation.
• At least two committee members must be CS professors or joint CS professors (academic council members, such as, Stanford faculty). Courtesy and adjunct CS professors do not count. This is a Departmental requirement.
• The reading committee supervises the dissertation research, advises the student, evaluates the student's progress, and signs the final draft of the dissertation.
• These committee members must serve on the student's orals committee because they are knowledgeable about the student's research.
• Readers who are not academic council members (limit 1) need prior approval from the CS PhD Student Services Office to serve on your reading committee. You must file a petition form and submit a copy of their CV to phdstudentservices@cs.stanford.edu.