Defense Scheduling & Thesis Form Contact

Scheduling Your Defense--Form 8:

Both Ph.D and MS candidates must schedule a defense, which is done by electronically submitting a Form 8: Request for Appointment of an Examining Graduate Committee to the Graduate School. The Form 8 should be fully approved by all required departmental and Graduate School staff at least 15 days prior to the planned defense date. As the approval process can sometimes take awhile to route through all of the parties involved, students are encouraged to speak to their examining committee members about their availability and get the form submitted as early as possible.

As of May 15th, 2023, the Chemistry Department's Formatting Advisor, Jordan Taylor Harris, can assist graduate students in submitting the Form 8 and scheduling their defense. Candidates can make this request by providing the following information to Jordan via email:

• The date they plan to hold their defense
• The time they plan to hold their defense
• The full names of their four examining committee members
• The full title of their thesis

After this information is received, Jordan will book the room in which the defense will be held and notify the student of the room number. The defense is two hours long, and the room will be booked for 2 1/2 hours to allow the student time to setup prior to their defense.

Students can submit the Form 8 on their own through the Plan of Study link in myPurdue. However, students planning to submit the form must notify Jordan via email of their intention to do so prior to submitting the Form 8 so that the Main Office can take account of the defense date and is aware that the form needs review/approval. Jordan will also be responsible for booking the room for defense, so students should include the defense date and time in their email to her.

In the event that the candidate's exam date and time must be changed, the student must email Jordan as soon as possible to notify her of the revised date/time, regardless of who submitted the Form 8. Jordan will then work with the Graduate School on the student's behalf to get the Form 8 revised.

The Chemistry Department Thesis Approval Form and Thesis Formatting:

Students must receive departmental approval for their thesis at least two weeks prior to the planned defense date. Departmental thesis approval is given through the Thesis Format Approval Form. This form must be signed by your Major Professor and then Jordan, in order to officially pass formatting in the department. At least one formatting meeting is required to obtain Jordan's signature on the form. Most students require multiple formatting consultations before their thesis is ready to be submitted for final approval. When requesting final approval, your thesis must be complete and should require little to no revisions. Revisions after approval, should be small and editorial at most. Regular candidates should schedule their first appointment by October 26th, 2023. 

A PDF copy of the Thesis Format Approval Form can be found here. 

Candidates writing in LaTeX will be required to consult with Jordan, and the Thesis Office for formatting approval. Candidates using LaTeX need to complete their thesis well in advance of their defense to guarantee formatting approval in time.

Candidates can access the thesis format templating by visiting either GraduateGo (access Templates and get the LaTeX template) or the Microsoft Word template. For Word, select campus "West Lafayette", select department/school "College of Science", and "DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE-ONE.DOCX".  Go to tinyurl.com/PUthesisworkshop for formatting & depositing guidelines.