Selecting a Mentor and Research Advisory Committee

The Program Directors initially advise new students on the selection of courses and other educational opportunities such as laboratory rotations. As the interests of the student become clarified and a thesis advisor is identified, the composition of the final committee becomes more formalized. Any difficulties in the advising process should always be brought to the attention of the Directors of the Toxicology Program.

Selection of a research mentor is crucial to advancing through the academic and research requirements of the Toxicology Training Program. Careful attention to this is essential and students are encouraged to explore all avenues for collecting information that will impact this decision. Such information may include research interests, publications, activity and funding of the research program, relationship of the research to toxicology, previous history of mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows, the number of people in the laboratory, and the level of training of these individuals. Given that this is an important commitment for the mentor, adequate discussions should take place to ensure that both parties agree about the relationship that is being established. Once a thesis advisor has been selected, the student needs to inform the Program Coordinator and Program Directors (email is acceptable and should include the faculty mentor whose laboratory you are joining). The mentor cannot be officially selected before May 1, but must be selected by June 1. The formal process of selecting a mentor now includes submitting a form that is signed by the trainee, their mentor, the mentor’s department Chair, and a TTP Program Director. In the rare instance that a student needs to change mentors, this must be done only after discussion with the Directors and, in some cases, the Dean of Graduate Studies because of how disruptive this can be to student progress.

Only those faculty who are formally listed as members of the Toxicology Training Program can serve as primary thesis advisors for students in this program. The recruitment of new faculty mentors who are conducting exceptional research related to the discipline of toxicology, and who will be strong mentors to our students remains a continuing objective of this program. Thus, a student's request to work with a faculty member who is not formally listed as a mentor in the Toxicology Training Program is viewed by the Co-Directors and the Steering Committee as a welcome opportunity to promote growth of our program. If a student desires to work with a tenured or tenure track University faculty member who is not already part of the program, then the Program Co-Directors and the Training Program Steering Committee must formally approve this. As part of the requirement for approval, the student must present, in writing, a request for such approval. This request should give the reason why the particular faculty was chosen over other faculty mentors in the Toxicology Program, a brief outline of the research topic that will be pursued with the faculty mentor, and a statement explaining the relationship of this research to the discipline of toxicology. The faculty member also needs to provide their CV and write a letter to the Program Directors indicating his/her commitment to join the Toxicology Program, willingness to serve as thesis research advisor to the student, and to provide financial support for the student’s doctoral program of study. The intention of this process is to ensure that students in the Toxicology Program are working with exceptional faculty who are able to support and assist in the students' research endeavors, and to comply with the requirements of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Toxicology Training Grant that supports most of our students. Additionally, if the chosen faculty member has relatively little research trainee mentoring experience, they will be paired with a more senior training program mentor, who will serve as a co-mentor and is included on the trainee’s advisory committee. The co-mentors shall meet with the trainee at least once every six months.

As soon as the student has selected an advisor and a thesis project, they must form a thesis (research) advisory committee. This committee will consist of four members, all of whom must be current full-time tenure track faculty with the rank of assistant professor or higher. At least two must be members of the Toxicology Training Program and are considered “internal members”. One of these inside members must be the student’s advisor. In addition to these two members, one member must be faculty whose primary appointment is outside the Toxicology Training Program. This member is considered an “external” member. The fourth member can be either “internal” or “external” to the Toxicology Training Program. Students may choose to have more than four committee members, but two things must be understood: 

1. any additional members will not have voting privileges at the conclusion of the dissertation defense
2. the ratio of external to internal members cannot exceed 50%. 

After establishing a Thesis Advisory Committee, students must inform the Program Coordinator and Program Directors about who is on the committee (email is acceptable, there is no form to fill out).

Once the thesis advisory committee has been formed, it must meet with the student at least once a year during the student’s tenure in the program, no later than June of each calendar year. It is the student’s responsibility to schedule this annual meeting. In the event that research directions are substantially altered such that the composition of the Advisory Committee should be changed, this needs to be coordinated through the Program Directors. If a committee member leaves the University, it is generally advised that the student should make plans for a replacement, following the same composition rules outlined above (with regard to Program member vs. non-member faculty).