Major Professor and Advisory Committee

Major Professor

All graduate students are required to select a Major Professor who acts as the Chair of their Advisory Committee and who agrees to supervise the student’s graduate study, research and thesis preparation, if applicable. The Major Professor must be a Mechanical Engineering faculty member or courtesy ME faculty member.

All students are assigned a temporary advisor when admitted to the ME graduate program. Students can consult with their temporary advisor and other faculty to determine a major professor, but should choose a Major Professor (from ME) before the end of their first semester and identify them on their plan of study (POS).

Those who are employed as a research assistant by ME work under the supervision of the faculty member(s) associated with that project. Major Professors are the faculty members supervising the research. When a student accepts a research assistantship the student also accepts the faculty offering the assistantship as the Major Professor. 

Students may have a Major Professor who serves as the Chair of their Advisory Committee, or they may have two Co-chairs who share equally in the advisory role as Major Professors. Students cannot have a Chair and a Co-chair.

Advisory Committee

Members of the Advisory Committee are to assist the student in the preparation of the POS and to offer advice on graduate work, including research and thesis preparation.  Selection of the Advisory Committee members is done in consultation with the Major Professor, but the student should seek consent of all of the desired faculty members who are requested to serve on the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee is formally established when the POS is submitted by the student and approved by the Purdue Graduate School.

All persons serving on the Advisory Committee of students must be regular or special graduate faculty, i.e., certified by the Graduate School to serve on the committees of graduate students.

Students may also include non-Purdue academics (faculty at other Universities), scientists at national labs, or researchers in industry, but they require prior approval from the Graduate School in the form of a certification as special graduate faculty (see below). Please keep in mind the Grad School policy that at least 51% of the advisory committee has to be composed of ‘R1’ appointments.

Request Approval of a Special Faculty Appointment: The Major Professor (not the outside person) must send the completed Special Faculty Appointment Form, to the ME Grad Office requesting special faculty certification with a clear justification for the specific expertise that the outside member brings to the student’s research, in addition to an electronic version of the complete vita for the outside person being considered. This request must be submitted in one transaction. Do not ask the outside person to submit information directly to the Graduate Office. This should be done by the ME professor. Make sure a current email and telephone number for the proposed special faculty appointment member is included on the form.

Master’s Advisory Committee

Thesis Option:  Consists of at least 3 members:

  • Major ME Professor or ME courtesy professor
  • Another professor who is interested in the student’s major field (usually from ME)
  • 3rd Professor representing a related area (usually, but not necessarily, from outside ME).
  • Students with Co-chairs need to select only one other member to complete the 3-member Advisory Committee.
  • If the Major Professor is a ME courtesy professor, at least one member has to be a ME faculty member with a 'R1' appointment.

Non-thesis Option:

  • Consists of at least one faculty member from the school of Mechanical Engineering. By default, this is the Grad Chair, Dr. Nicole Key.

PhD and Direct PhD Advisory Committees

Consists of at least 4 members:

  • Major ME Professor or ME courtesy professor
  • Two other professors who are interested in the student’s major field (usually from ME)
  • At least 1 member of the Advisory Committee (in addition to the Chair or one of the Co-Chairs) must be a ME faculty member. If the Major Professor is a ME courtesy professor, then two members are required to be ME faculty, with a 'R1' appointment.
  • Fourth professor representing a related area and required to be from outside ME.
  • Students with Co-chairs need to select at least two other members to complete the 4-member Advisory Committee.
  • The Advisory Committee must be at least 50% ME 'R1' appointments.

Changing the Advisory Committee

Requests for changes in the Advisory Committee are made electronically through myPurdue, by submitting a change to your POS.  Each request for a change should have a comment added on the POS as to the reason for the change.  The change request will need to be approved by the member(s) whose status is affected by the request, the Major Professor, the POS Coordinator, the Graduate Chair and Grad School.

 

ME Graduate Office
516 Northwestern Ave. (4th floor of Wang Hall)
West Lafayette, IN 47906
MEgradoffice@purdue.edu
(765) 494-5730
Virtual office hours available every Tues/Wed/Thurs