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How to Create a Dissertation Timeline (With Examples + Tempate)

When it’s time to start thinking about writing your dissertation, it is vital to put together a dissertation timeline. This will help you map out the months you will be spending on your dissertation, and ensure that you’re staying on track. A specific and detailed dissertation timeline will serve as an outline to guide you, step by step, through what can be a long and challenging process. 

While we often refer to a dissertation in a way that makes it sound like a monolith, in reality, a dissertation consists of many moving parts. A dissertation timeline includes a series of milestones that leads up to the dissertation defense , revisions, and final submission of your dissertation. Constructing an outline of every step in the dissertation process , including rough estimates of how long each will take, will give you a realistic picture of where you are in the process at any given time. 

Before embarking on your dissertation, it is a good idea to meet with your dissertation advisor and sketch out a dissertation timeline that is realistic for the size and scope of your project and includes deadlines. This will provide you with much-needed structure and a sense of what will happen next. To get an idea of what a completed dissertation looks like and the components your program requires, ask to see samples from recent graduates in your department. 

These are a few frequently asked questions about crafting a dissertation timeline: 

• What does a dissertation timeline look like?
• What goes in a dissertation timeline? 
• How structured should a dissertation timeline be?
• What do you do with a dissertation timeline? 

What Does a Dissertation Timeline Look Like? 

One way to think about a dissertation timeline is as a kind of outline. While the outlining process is unique to each writer, there are commonalities shared by all of them. Likewise, when writing a dissertation timeline, you’ll want to include all of the basic elements of your dissertation as well as the amount of time you think you’ll need to execute them. 

The best dissertation timeline format is the one that works for you. Though I’ve reformed somewhat over the years, for a long time I wasn’t a fan of intensely detailed outlines. Many people don’t like outlines. And that’s okay! However, writing a dissertation is not the time to be flying by the seat of your pants. To get started, a simple, linear timeline that projects the amount of time you think you’ll need to write your dissertation will suffice. 

Example Dissertation Timeline

Below, you’ll find an example of a dissertation timeline, which you can view as an image in your browser or download as a spreadsheet. Feel free to use the spreadsheet as a template as you build your own dissertation timeline.

Or download the spreadsheet below:

Inclusion in a Dissertation Timeline

When constructing your dissertation timeline, include every element of the dissertation from the abstract to the conclusion. Keep in mind that you may not be writing your chapters in chronological order. For instance, after completing their first round of research and writing their research question, most graduate students will tackle their literature review next, even though it comes after the abstract and introduction in the final document. 

Depending on the field being studied, most dissertations will also include sections for methodology, results, and discussion. Many programs also require a detailed conclusion that alludes to future research possibilities. Every dissertation also has an extensive list of references (pro tip: write this as you’re writing your dissertation), as well as appendices for charts, graphs, and other ephemera. And don’t forget your acknowledgments! 

Dissertation Timeline Structure

The structure of your dissertation timeline will take shape once you’re engaged in the research process. While a road map may seem like an apt metaphor for a dissertation, once you get started you may notice a lot of starts and stops and circling back. After you’ve begun researching, you may realize that you need to allot more time for digging through the databases, or you may discover that you need to reformulate your research question entirely. 

I’ve seen many of my own graduate students use calendars to great effect, giving themselves hard and fast deadlines to meet. Many students also build out their dissertation timelines as they progress, attaching working drafts of their abstract, introduction, and literature review to their timeline within a giant spreadsheet that links to multiple documents and sources. All of these methods are valid. Devise one that works for you. 

Using a Dissertation Timeline

So once you have a thoughtful, soundly-constructed dissertation timeline, what do you do with it? First, and most importantly, try your best to adhere to it. Check in with your dissertation timeline regularly, and use it to keep yourself on track. Also, make adjustments to it as needed. If you find yourself breezing through your preliminary research but needing a bit more time for your literature review, consult your timeline and adjust accordingly. 

While meeting your deadlines is important, also construct your dissertation timeline with an understanding that many graduate students face delays once they start working on their dissertation. These can include hold-ups at the department or university level in the form of late IRB approval or limited lab space or grant funding that gets cut. Anything can happen, but having a dissertation timeline will help you get back on track as soon as the storm passes. 

In my own experience, I also found my dissertation timeline to be a great document to share and discuss with my dissertation chair and committee. Once I finished my comprehensive exams, I met with members of my dissertation committee and got feedback on my rough dissertation timeline to make sure my goals for submitting my dissertation and graduating were realistic. This also ensured that we were all on the same page. 

When writing a dissertation, timing is everything. Creating a dissertation timeline gives you definitive time limits for research and writing, and it also influences several other major decisions that you’ll need to make. These include preparation to go on the job market, which often coincides with writing your dissertation. There is no doubt that this will be a hectic time in your graduate school career, but having a well-organized dissertation timeline is a good way to keep everything in perspective. 

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Courtney Watson, Ph.D.

Courtney Watson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English at Radford University Carilion, in Roanoke, Virginia. Her areas of expertise include undergraduate and graduate curriculum development for writing courses in the health sciences and American literature with a focus on literary travel, tourism, and heritage economies. Her writing and academic scholarship has been widely published in places that include  Studies in American Culture ,  Dialogue , and  The Virginia Quarterly Review . Her research on the integration of humanities into STEM education will be published by Routledge in an upcoming collection. Dr. Watson has also been nominated by the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Rising Star Award, and she is a past winner of the National Society of Arts & Letters Regional Short Story Prize, as well as institutional awards for scholarly research and excellence in teaching. Throughout her career in higher education, Dr. Watson has served in faculty governance and administration as a frequent committee chair and program chair. As a higher education consultant, she has served as a subject matter expert, an evaluator, and a contributor to white papers exploring program development, enrollment research, and educational mergers and acquisitions.

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Dissertation Checklist and Timeline

Completing all of the crucial steps to the dissertation process can be complicated. Time and task management will be key to your success. Review the suggested tasks and print out this checklist to assist you in your dissertation journey.

Every Thing You Need to Know About the Dissertation Timeline

• By Ethan Tremblay
• Academic Writing

Pursuing a PhD is an immense undertaking, and the dissertation timeline is a critical component that guides scholars through this academic endeavor. A dissertation timeline outlines the major milestones and deadlines from the proposal to the final defense. It serves as a roadmap, helping students manage their time effectively and navigate the complex process with clarity and focus. Understanding the significance of a well-structured timeline is paramount, as it can influence the quality of the research, the writing process, and ultimately, the success of the dissertation.

Understanding the Dissertation Process: Key Stages to Shape Your Timeline

Embarking on a dissertation journey is a significant undertaking that involves several key stages. Each phase is crucial and requires careful planning and execution to ensure a successful completion. Understanding these stages is essential for creating an effective dissertation timeline .

• Proposal Development: This initial stage involves identifying a research topic, formulating research questions, and developing a proposal that outlines the study’s objectives, methodology, and significance.
• Literature Review: A comprehensive review of existing literature to frame the research within the context of what is already known and to identify gaps that the dissertation will address.
• Research Design and Data Collection: Establishing a robust methodology and collecting data through various means such as experiments, surveys, or archival research.
• Data Analysis: After data collection, the next step is to analyze the data to draw meaningful insights and patterns that support the research questions.
• Writing the Dissertation: This involves drafting the chapters, which include the introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
• Revision and Editing: Refining the draft, addressing feedback from advisors and committee members, and ensuring the dissertation meets the required academic standards.
• Defense Preparation: Preparing for the final defense involves summarizing the research findings and defending the work before a committee.

Each of these stages plays a pivotal role in shaping the dissertation timeline and ultimately determines the trajectory of the research journey from inception to defense.

Creating Your Personalized Dissertation Timeline

Creating a personalized dissertation timeline is a pivotal step in managing your doctoral journey effectively. To begin, break down the dissertation process into manageable stages. Start by estimating the time needed for each phase, such as proposal development, research, writing, editing, and preparation for defense. Set realistic goals for each stage, considering your personal and professional commitments.

• Initial Research: Allocate time to immerse yourself in your topic, understand the scope, and formulate your research questions.
• Proposal Writing: Dedicate a period for drafting, revising, and obtaining approval for your proposal.
• Data Collection: Schedule ample time for gathering and analyzing your data, which can be unpredictable.
• Drafting Chapters: Plan periods for writing individual chapters, allowing for feedback and revisions.
• Final Review: Before the defense, set aside time for a thorough review and refinement of your dissertation.

Remember to incorporate buffers for unexpected delays, such as personal emergencies or academic setbacks. By anticipating these potential hurdles, you can adjust your timeline accordingly. Tailor your timeline to your individual needs, working style, and life circumstances. Regularly review and adjust your timeline to reflect your progress and any changes in your situation.

Utilizing tools like Gantt charts or project management software can help visualize and track your progress against your dissertation timeline . This visual representation can be particularly helpful in staying organized and motivated.

Key Factors Influencing Your Dissertation Timeline

When planning your dissertation timeline , it’s crucial to consider the various elements that can influence its length. These factors are often interconnected, and their impact can vary widely among different students and disciplines.

• Research Complexity: The scope and depth of your research can significantly affect your timeline. Projects requiring extensive experimentation, fieldwork, or longitudinal studies may take longer to complete.
• Funding: Access to financial resources can accelerate or delay your progress. Sufficient funding allows for dedicated research time, while a lack of it might necessitate part-time work, extending the timeline.
• Academic Obligations: Teaching responsibilities, coursework, and departmental duties can impact the amount of time available for dissertation work.
• Personal Life: Life events such as family commitments, health issues, or other personal circumstances can also play a significant role in the duration of your dissertation journey.

Understanding these factors can help you set realistic goals and adjust your timeline accordingly, ensuring a smoother path to your dissertation defense.

Typical Duration from Start to Defense in Your Dissertation Timeline

When planning for a PhD, understanding the dissertation timeline is crucial. The journey from the initial proposal to the final defense can vary significantly. Generally, this period spans anywhere from three to eight years, with most candidates averaging around four to six years. This timeframe is influenced by numerous factors, including the complexity of the research, the field of study, and the institution’s requirements.

• Year 1-2: Coursework and defining research topic
• Year 2-3: Comprehensive exams and proposal development
• Year 3-5: Research, data collection, and writing
• Year 5-6: Revisions and preparation for defense

It’s important to note that these stages can overlap, and some students may progress faster or slower. In fields like the sciences, where experiments can be unpredictable, the timeline might extend. Conversely, disciplines with a strong theoretical basis might see shorter durations. Each academic journey is unique, and while these are typical stages, they are not set in stone.

Completion Rates and the Dissertation Timeline: Understanding the Challenges

Understanding the completion rates and the hurdles that PhD students face during their dissertation journey is crucial. A significant number of doctoral candidates face the daunting reality of not crossing the finish line. Statistics reveal that nearly 50% of PhD students do not complete their dissertations . This stark number is indicative of the myriad of challenges that can derail even the most dedicated scholars.

• Protracted research phases and difficulty in data collection often contribute to delays.
• Financial constraints may arise, leading to stress and a lack of resources.
• Academic burnout and personal issues can also impede progress.
• Moreover, the complexity of the subject matter and unexpected academic hurdles can cause significant setbacks.

These factors, among others, underscore the importance of a well-planned dissertation timeline to navigate the PhD journey effectively. It is not just about setting deadlines, but also about anticipating potential obstacles and building in contingencies for when things do not go as planned.

Conclusion: Key Takeaways on Your Dissertation Timeline

In wrapping up, the journey through your dissertation timeline is unique, yet it shares common milestones with peers. From proposal to defense, each phase is pivotal. Remember, meticulous planning and realistic timeframes are the cornerstones of success. The challenges faced, such as research complexities and personal commitments, can stretch this timeline, but they also forge resilience. A significant portion of doctoral candidates may not reach the finish line, underscoring the need for determination and support networks. Ultimately, this timeline is not just a schedule; it’s a testament to your scholarly dedication and perseverance.

Ethan Tremblay

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How to Create a Research Timeline for Your Thesis

5-minute read

• 21st May 2023

Beginning a dissertation can feel both thrilling and overwhelming. One of the best things you can do to prepare for the exciting journey of doing a dissertation is to design a comprehensive timeline as your guide. Here we will take you step by step through creating your thesis timeline and provide some example templates, so you’ll be well-prepared to begin your dissertation work.

Reasons for Creating a Timeline

There are many benefits to crafting a detailed dissertation timeline. In addition to helping with time management and meeting crucial deadlines, your timeline will also help you stay motivated by reviewing the tasks you have completed as you progress. A thorough timeline will be valuable during your dissertation proposal and useful if you are applying for grants or other additional funding.

Ste0ps for Creating a Timeline for Your Thesis:

• Research and record all requirements and deadlines.

Before you write out your timeline, ensure you know all of your program’s requirements and deadlines. Academic institutions often require you to complete your dissertation within a specified timeframe.

There are likely several recommended or mandatory deadlines for approval of certain items by your adviser (and possibly the rest of your committee members). Gather all these dates beforehand so you can allot an appropriate amount of time to meet your deadlines.

It will be beneficial to meet with your adviser to understand when you are expected to complete the major phases of your dissertation work and to confirm that there aren’t any other requirements or deadlines that you may not be aware of.

• List all of your tasks and bundle them into phases.

Now that you’ve assembled your dates, working backward from your deadlines is a good rule of thumb. List all of the required tasks that must be completed to meet each milestone, from coming up with your research questions to writing each chapter of your dissertation .

Even though your list will be unique to your research project, it can help to refer to a thesis checklist . It’s also helpful to assemble tasks into different phases (e.g., dissertation proposal, research recruitment). Grouping tasks into phases gives anyone looking at your timeline a quick overview of your research plan.

• Organize your tasks into a schedule and assign task deadlines.

Now it’s time to build your timeline. There are many different free templates available online, from straightforward lists of deliverables to colorful options with room for notes and customization.

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A popular organizational approach for thesis timelines is a Gantt chart , which is a type of bar chart often used in project management in which the length of the bar corresponds to the time the task will take. The best choice for you will depend on the specifics of your research study and personal preferences. Whichever option you select, make sure you can easily edit and revise it as need be.

Sanity-Saving Tips:

●  Pay attention to your work style. Some people are more productive when writing in short bursts, while others write better after taking time to get into the zone. Some people choose to start writing parts of their thesis while still conducting research, while others prefer to focus on one phase at a time. Set yourself up for success by reflecting on what type of schedule will help you create the best quality work.

●  Schedule breaks. Almost everyone will work better after a well-deserved break. Make sure to schedule regular breaks into your timeline, as well as provide enough time to sleep, eat well, and do anything else you need to do to safeguard your well-being. 

●  Always have a plan B. Your dissertation is an extensive endeavor with many moving parts. It’s impossible to anticipate and plan for every conceivable event, but it’s helpful to expect something may occur that will cause a deviation from your original timeline. Perhaps study recruitment takes longer than you expected, or one of your committee members gets sick and you have to postpone your dissertation proposal. After you draft your timeline, check that it is not so strict that any disruption will cause a total derailment of your plan. Aim to strike a balance between goals that will inspire you to progress steadfastly and have some leeway in your timeline for the inevitable curveball that life will throw at you somewhere along the way.

Following these three steps will help you draft a timeline to steer the course of your dissertation work: research and record all requirements and deadlines; work backward from your dissertation deadline and assemble your task lists; and organize your tasks into a timeline.

Don’t forget to include ample time for editing and proofreading your dissertation . And if you are interested in any help from us, you can try a sample of our services for free . Best of luck in writing your dissertation!

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Library Guides

Dissertations 1: getting started: planning.

• Starting Your Dissertation
• Choosing A Topic and Researching
• Devising An Approach/Method
• Thinking Of A Title
• Writing A Proposal

Planning Your Time

The dissertation is a large project, so it needs careful planning. To organise your time, you can try the following:  

Break down the dissertation into smaller stages to complete (e.g., literature search, read materials, data collection, write literature review section…). 

Create a schedule. Working backwards from your deadline, decide when you will complete each stage. 

Set aside time to regularly work on the dissertation. 

Consider what times of day you are most alert and what makes a suitable space to study. 

Identify a specific task to work on. 

If overwhelmed, try to identify one task that needs doing rather than focusing on the larger project. 

Leave time to redraft, proof-read, format, and complete the reference list. 

Gantt Charts

As the dissertation project involves certain processes to take place simultaneously, rather than in a sequence, you can use a Gantt chart to organise your time.  

A Gantt chart is a bar chart which shows the schedule for a project. The project is broken down into key tasks/elements to be completed. A start and finish date for each task/element of the project is given. Some tasks are scheduled at the same time or may overlap. Others will start when a task has been completed. 

To produce a Gantt chart, you can use Word, Excel (see example in the attachment) or an online planner.

• Tom's Planner . There's  an example  for you to use to complete your plan. 
• Excel:  example of Gantt Chart in Excel . This is an example of a Gantt chart which can be used to generate a plan of work (timeline) for your dissertation. You can download and edit it as you please. The chart has been created by the University of Leicester. 

Research Data Management

This video helps you to understand the importance of research data management and how you can plan, organise, store, preserve, and share your data.

• Link to video on Research Data Management
• Feedback Form Please give us feedback on our videos!
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• Last Updated: Aug 1, 2023 2:36 PM
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Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

*The Caveat *

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.  

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

• Acknowledgements page
• Abstract (or executive summary)
• Table of contents , list of figures and tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature review
• Chapter 3: Methodology
• Chapter 4: Results
• Chapter 5: Discussion
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

• The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
• The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
• The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
• The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question .

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

• Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
• Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
• Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

• The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
• The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
• Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or  mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

• Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
• Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
• Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
• Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

• Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
• Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
• Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
• Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

Table of contents

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

• What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
• Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
• What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
• What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
• How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
• How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

• What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
• Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
• How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
• How does your research contribute something original?
• How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

• Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
• Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics , etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings? In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

• Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the  Grad Coach Blog .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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36 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

Very nice and easy to understand. Thank you .

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

This is so good

How can i arrange my specific objectives in my dissertation?

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Trapped in dissertation revisions?

Dissertation timeline, published by steve tippins on june 26, 2022 june 26, 2022.

Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 05:21 am

So, you’re writing a dissertation? Amazing! Congratulations! (Also, I’m sorry. And good luck.). 

If you’re embarking on this difficult journey, you need to go where you’re going. Every treasure hunt begins with a good map. (This particular treasure hunt happens to be for information that fills an extremely specific gap in the scholarly literature ).

Your dissertation timeline is the map you’ll rely on as you navigate the stormy waters of your dissertation journey. It will tell you what you need to be working on at any given stage of the process, and what you should prepare for when you’re done with your current task.

Expect the Unexpected

Remember that the map is not the journey. You can plan everything out perfectly, but life happens. Life even happens to doctoral students, who have ostensibly given up having a life.

The point is, don’t beat yourself up when your experience doesn’t match up with your dissertation timeline. The timeline is there to guide you and provide useful goals, but it can be adapted along the way as things come up. 

Perhaps your proposal needs five rounds of revision instead of the one or two you planned for (a common occurrence, except for those who have the foresight to hire a dissertation editor ). Maybe your committee chair decides to take an unexpected vacation. Maybe an unexpected family event happens.

All of these bumps are normal parts of the dissertation process. Don’t worry if you don’t live up to your own expectations as far as how quickly you finish. The important thing is not to go quickly, but to get to completion. 

Here are the major steps you’ll need to take when writing your dissertation, from ideation to graduation.

Over 50% of doctoral candidates don’t finish their dissertations.

Step 1: Prospectus

The timeline for a dissertation begins with the generation of your idea. This usually takes the form of a prospectus . A prospectus explains, What are you planning to do? Then, you get your chair and committee to agree that it’s a reasonable topic. Most people go through more than one idea before settling on their topic, and that can take some time. 

It may take you a month to come up with your idea because you’re going to be looking for a gap in the research. Once you find a gap in the research, see whether you could complete a relevant study within a reasonable time period. 

A tip – most students try to tackle topics that are entirely too broad. Look at past dissertation topics in your department, and you’ll see just how specific you need to be. 

Step 2: Proposal (Chapters 1 to 3)

After your prospectus, you move on to the proposal stage. At most universities, that means writing Chapters 1, 2, and 3. These three chapters are going to be about 60 to 70 pages total. You are going to have to do a lot of writing and research and get committee approval. 

A timeline might say you can do your dissertation proposal in three to four months, but that is only true as long as what you’re submitting is well-written and your committee approves it. For argument’s sake, we’ll say it takes four months. The next level of your dissertation is to collect data. But before you can collect data, you have to get IRB approval. 

Step 3: Institutional Review Board Approval

Approval from the Institutional Review Board, or IRB, states that what you’re going to be doing will not harm any participants in your study. IRB approval is usually relatively quick, depending on what type of research you’re doing. If you want to research small children, for example, it’s going to take longer to get approval. There must be safeguards in place to protect those children. Once you have IRB approval, you move on to collecting your data. 

Step 4: Data Collection

Collecting data can be as short as a couple of hours if you are accessing data for a quantitative study from a secondary data source . In that case, you would just be getting the data you need from the database. Then, take that data, make sure it’s in the format you need, and enter it into the appropriate statistical software package. If you need help with this, check out our quantitative data analysis services.

On the other hand, if you’re doing a qualitative study and you have to track people down, it can take several months in order to just find and interview them. Then, you can process those interviews by transcribing and entering them into the appropriate statistical or software program to come up with themes. 

Step 5: Analysis and Conclusion (Chapters 4 and 5)

Once you have statistical results and themes, you can write Chapter 4 and report your findings. Then, write Chapter 5 , in which you analyze your findings. Say what they mean and how it fits in the literature. Compare your findings to the literature you used to begin your study and address what future research should be done. 

This phase could take anywhere from three to nine months, depending on how quickly you can collect your data. It is conceivable that you could finish your dissertation within a year or a year and a half. All of these time periods we’ve presented so far assume you’re working on your dissertation full-time. If you have a job and a family and are also working on a dissertation, it can take longer.

Step 6: Defense

Once you have finished your dissertation (Chapters 1 through 5) you have to go back to your committee, get approval, and then do your dissertation defense. This process can be as short as a month. But if your committee has problems with what you’ve done or it needs more work, it could take several months. 

Variables in the Dissertation Timeline

There are a number of variables outside your control. For example, you might finish in July and then one or two of your committee members are off on research projects of their own and won’t be back until September. But in an ideal timeline, a year to a year and a half is reasonable.

While we can present ideals and hypotheticals, you do have a lot of control over the timeline. If you dedicate yourself and work ahead, you can minimize the amount of time it will take to have “Dr.” in front of your name. 

Dealing With Unexpected Events

Unexpected things can come up as well. First of all, if you’re not a full-time student, life can throw many things in your way. Somebody could become sick, a pandemic could come about, or your job could increase its demands on you. 

You don’t control your committee’s time, and they may have other things going on that prevent them from responding quickly. Funding interruptions can also happen. Being good at handling details is going to help you stay on track as much as possible. 

That’s where a dissertation timeline comes in. Get this together from the very beginning, and you’ll be better-equipped to deal with unexpected events and finish your dissertation in as little time as possible.

Steve Tippins

Steve Tippins, PhD, has thrived in academia for over thirty years. He continues to love teaching in addition to coaching recent PhD graduates as well as students writing their dissertations. Learn more about his dissertation coaching and career coaching services. Book a Free Consultation with Steve Tippins

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A Guide to Dissertation Planning: Tips, Tools and Templates

Dissertations are a defining piece of academic research and writing for all students. To complete such a large research project while maintaining a good work-life balance, planning and organisation is essential. In this article, we’ll outline three categories for dissertation planning including project management, note-taking and information management, alongside tools and templates for planning and researching effectively.

For both undergraduates and postgraduates, a dissertation is an important piece of academic research and writing. A large research project often has many moving parts from managing information, meetings, and data to completing a lengthy write-up with drafts and edits. Although this can feel daunting, getting ahead with effective planning and organisation will make this process easier. By implementing project management techniques and tools, you can define a research and writing workflow that allows you to work systematically. This will enable you to engage in critical thinking and deep work, rather than worrying about organisation and deadlines. 

To get prepared, you can do two things: First, start your preliminary readings and research to define a topic and methodology.  You can do this in summer or during the first few weeks of university but the sooner, the better. This gives you time to discuss things with your supervisor, and really choose a topic of interest. Second, begin preparing the tools and techniques you’ll be using for your research and writing workflow. You can use the preliminary research phase to test these out, and see what works for you. 

Below, we’ll cover three key aspects to consider when managing your dissertation, alongside some digital tools for planning, research and writing. 

The 3 Categories of Dissertation Planning

Project Management and Planning 

Your dissertation is a project that requires both long and short-term planning. For long-term planning, roadmaps are useful to break your work down into sections, chapters or stages. This will give you a clear outline of the steps you need to work through to complete your dissertation in a timely manner. 

Most likely, your roadmap will be a mixture of the stages in your research project and the sections of your write-up. For example, stage 1 might be defined as preliminary research and proposal writing. While stage 3 might be completing your literature review, while collecting data. 

This roadmap can be supplemented by a timeline of deadlines, this is when those stages or chapters need to be completed by. Your timeline will inform your short-term plans, and define the tasks that need completing on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This approach, using a roadmap and timeline, allows you to capture all the moving parts of your dissertation, and focus on small sub-sections at a time. A clear plan can make it easy to manage setbacks, such as data collection issues, or needing more time for editing. 

Note-taking 

Whether you use a notebook, or digital tool, it’s ideal to have a dedicated research space for taking general notes. This might include meeting notes from supervision, important information from informational dissertation lectures, or key reminders, ideas and thoughts. It can be your go-to place for miscellaneous to-do lists, or to map out your thought processes. It’s good to have something on hand that is easy to access, and keeps your notes together in one place. 

Beyond this, you’ll also need a dedicated space or system for literature and research notes. These notes are important for avoiding plagiarism, communicating your ideas, and connecting key findings together. A proper system or space can make it easier to manage this information, and find the appropriate reference material when writing. Within this system, you might also include templates or checklists, for example, a list of critical reading questions to work through when assessing a paper. 

Information Management 

It’s important to consider how you plan to organise your literature, important documents, and written work. Note-taking is a part of this, however, this goes a step further to carefully organise all aspects of your dissertation. For example, it’s ideal to keep track of your literature searches, the papers you’ve read, and their citations but also, your reading progress. Being able to keep track of how many passes a paper has been through, how relevant it is, or where it fits within your themes, or ideas, will provide a good foundation for writing a well-thought out dissertation. 

Likewise, editing is an important part of the write-up process. You’ll have multiple drafts, revisions and feedback to consider. It’s good to have some way of keeping track of all this, to ensure all changes and edits have been completed. You might also have checklists or procedures to follow when collecting data, or working through your research. A good information management process can reduce stress, making everything easy to access and keep track of, which then allows you to focus on getting the actual work complete. 

Digital Project Management and Research Tools for Dissertation Planning 

Trello is a project management tool that uses boards, lists and cards to help you manage all your tasks. In a board, you can create lists, and place cards within these lists. Cards contain a range of information such as notes, checklists, and due dates. Cards and lists can be used to implement a digital kanban board system , allowing you to move cards into a ‘to-do’, ‘in progress’ or ‘complete’ list. This gives a visual representation of your progress.

This is a flexible, easy to use and versatile tool that can help with project management of your dissertation. For example, cards and lists can be used to track your literature, each card can represent a paper and lists could be 1st pass, 2nd pass, or be divided into themes. Likewise, you can use this approach to organise the various chapters or stages of your dissertation, and break down tasks in a visual way. Students have used Trello to manage academic literature reviews , daily life as an academic , and collaborate with their supervisors for feedback and revisions on their write-up. 

Notion is an all-in-one note-taking and project management tool that is highly customisable. Using content blocks, pages, and databases, this tool allows you to build a workspace tailored to your needs. Databases are a key feature of Notion, this function allows you to organise and define pages using a range of properties such as tags, dates, numbers, categories and more. This database can then be displayed in a multitude of ways using different views, and filters. 

For example, you can create a table with each entry being a page of meeting notes with your supervisor, you can assign a date, person, and tags to each page. You can then filter this information by date, or view it in a board format. Likewise, you can use the calendar to add deadlines, within these deadlines, you can expand the page to add information, and switch to ‘timeline’ view . This is perfect for implementing project management techniques when planning your dissertation. 

Although this may sound complicated, there are many templates and resources to get you started . Notion is an ideal tool for covering all three aspects of dissertation planning from project and information management to note-taking of all kinds. Students have used Notion for literature reviews , thesis writing , long-term PhD planning , thesis management , and academic writing . The best part, these students not only share their systems, but have also created free templates to help you build your own system for research. 

Asana is a project management and to-do list tool that uses boards, lists, timelines and calendars. If you’re someone who prefers using lists to organise your life and projects, Asana is ideal for you. You can use this tool to manage deadlines, reading progress, or break down your work into projects and sub-tasks. Asana can integrate with your calendar, which is perfect if you already use other calendar tools for organisation. If something like Notion is too overwhelming, using a mixture of tools with different purposes can be a more comfortable approach. 

Genei is an AI-powered research tool for note-taking and literature management. Your research and reading material can be imported, and organised using projects and folders. For each file, genei produces an AI-powered summary, document outline, keyword list and overview. This tool also extracts key information such as tables, figures, and all the references mentioned. You can read through documents 70% faster but also, collect related articles by clicking on the items in the reference list. Genei can generate citations, and be used alongside other popular reference management tools, such as Zotero and Mendeley . 

This tool is ideal for navigating information management and literature notes for your dissertation. You can compile notes across single documents or folders of documents using the AI-generated summaries. These notes remain linked to their original source, which removes the need for you to keep track of this information. If you find it hard to reword content, there’s also summarising and paraphrasing tools to help get you started. Genei is a great tool to use alongside project management solutions, such as Trello and Asana, and note-taking tools like Notion. You can define an efficient research and writing workflow using these range of tools, and make it easier to stay on top of your dissertation. 

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• Introduction for Types of Dissertations
• Overview of the Dissertation
• Self-Assessment Exercise
• What is a Dissertation Committee
• Different Types of Dissertations
• Introduction for Overview of the Dissertation Process
• Responsibilities: the Chair, the Team and You
• Sorting Exercise
• Stages of a Dissertation
• Managing Your Time
• Create Your Own Timeline
• Working with a Writing Partner
• Key Deadlines
• Self Assessment Exercise
• Additional Resources
• Purpose and Goals
• Read and Evaluate Chapter 1 Exemplars
• Draft an Introduction of the Study
• Outline the Background of the Problem
• Draft your Statement of the Problem
• Draft your Purpose of the Study
• Draft your Significance of the Study
• List the Possible Limitations and Delimitations
• Explicate the Definition of Terms
• Outline the Organization of the Study
• Recommended Resources and Readings
• Purpose of the Literature Review
• What is the Literature?
• Article Summary Table
• Writing a Short Literature Review
• Outline for Literature Review
• Synthesizing the Literature Review
• Purpose of the Methodology Chapter
• Topics to Include
• Preparing to Write the Methodology Chapter
• Confidentiality
• Building the Components for Chapter Three
• Preparing for Your Qualifying Exam (aka Proposal Defense)
• What is Needed for Your Proposal Defense?
• Submitting Your Best Draft
• Preparing Your Abstract for IRB
• Use of Self-Assessment
• Preparing Your PowerPoint
• During Your Proposal Defense
• After Your Proposal Defense
• Pre-observation – Issues to consider
• During Observations
• Wrapping Up
• Recommended Resources and Readings (Qualitative)
• Quantitative Data Collection
• Recommended Resources and Readings (Quantitative)
• Qualitative: Before you Start
• Qualitative: During Analysis
• Qualitative: After Analysis
• Qualitative: Recommended Resources and Readings
• Quantitative: Deciding on the Right Analysis
• Quantitative: Data Management and Cleaning
• Quantitative: Keep Track of your Analysis
• The Purpose of Chapter 4
• The Elements of Chapter 4
• Presenting Results (Quantitative)
• Presenting Findings (Qualitative)
• Chapter 4 Considerations
• The Purpose of Chapter 5
• Preparing Your Abstract for the Graduate School
• Draft the Introduction for Chapter 5
• Draft the Summary of Findings
• Draft Implications for Practice
• Draft your Recommendations for Research
• Draft your Conclusions
• What is Needed
• What Happens During the Final Defense?
• What Happens After the Final Defense?

Create Your Own Timeline Topic 2: Overview of the Dissertation Process

Notes From a Writer's Desk: Demystifying the Dissertation Finish Line

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As a doctoral candidate in your final year, you’re likely juggling various responsibilities—finishing the dissertation, navigating the job market, completing lab work, possibly teaching, and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life. In these last few months of the dissertation process, the journey can range from feeling like a well-oiled machine to experiencing well-ordered chaos. Amidst this whirlwind, it is crucial to establish clear expectations with your committee and prioritize tasks to ensure success on the road to graduation. As you try to manage your academic and personal obligations, a primary step is to plot out your remaining time and strategize how to allocate that time effectively. Consider breaking down your time into reasonable chunks, dedicating specific periods to producing the final draft(s) and making revisions, preparing for the defense, and formatting your dissertation document for submission.

Final draft(s) and revisions

Take inventory of the revisions you still need to make for your dissertation. Prioritize tasks based on their importance and feasibility within your timeline. For example, you may need to incorporate additional critical literature into various chapters, clean up citations and your bibliography, build in transitions that move between chapters, alter the structure of a couple of sections within a chapter, and/or hone the framing of your goals and argument(s) in your introduction. Set aside specific time for each of these revisions, thinking about which ones will require the most attention and which you can accomplish when you are less focused. Furthermore, seek out feedback from your advisor and committee members to ensure that your work meets the prescribed standards. Remember that maintaining clear communication with your advisor is essential for a smoother final stretch, especially if you find yourself needing to make compromises in order to meet deadlines. 

Preparing for the defense

Depending on your department’s requirements, the dissertation defense may take various forms. Many defenses will be public presentations, in which the candidate is given the chance to present their research to an audience of peers, members of the faculty, and their committee. Others might be a private final conversation with your committee. Reach out to the committee and to your department administrator to make sure that you are all on the same page. But no matter what kind of defense you have, preparation is key. Practice your presentation (perhaps with us at the FWC!), anticipate potential questions, identify areas you hope to improve upon or develop further in future iterations of the project, and ensure that you are well-versed in discussing and defending your research. Finally, make sure to schedule your defense with ample time before the submission deadline—ideally two or three weeks—to allow you to address any late-stage revisions, including crucial questions that might be brought up at the defense itself.

Submission process

Staggering the defense and submission dates will also provide sufficient time to format your dissertation according to the  registrar’s guidelines . Familiarizing yourself with the formatting requirements early on in the process will help minimize stress during the brief post-defense period. Pay close attention to the guidelines regarding the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC) and the document’s front matter, including the title page, copyright page, abstract, table of contents, acknowledgements, and any lists of illustrations or figures you may require. Strive to submit your dissertation earlier than the deadline just in case you need to make minor adjustments based on feedback from the registrar.

Long-term considerations

Remember to think carefully about your long-term plans for the material in your dissertation. Are you planning to revise the entire dissertation for publication as a monograph? Or are you going to publish elements of it in a series of articles? Should you embargo your work, and if so, for how long? This should also prompt some reflection on how your dissertation will fit into your broader academic and professional goals.

As you approach the dissertation finish line, remember that it is not just about reaching the end and checking that last box. It should be a celebration of your academic journey and the achievements you have amassed along the way. By formulating a well-structured plan, you can navigate these last few months with confidence and alleviate at least some of the stresses of the home stretch. And trust me, once you hit the submit button and get that final confirmation email—after, of course, the inevitable email asking you to fix a formatting issue—you will feel an immense weight lifted from your shoulders.

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Time Management Resources for Graduate Students and Postdocs

Dissertation plan

Completing your dissertation can be overwhelming and stressful. It is a critical period of time to manage time effectively and execute your well-thought-out plans. In this section, we aim to provide some checkpoints or milestones that help you to complete your dissertation in a timely manner:

• Find out the requirements and deadlines set by the department and graduate school. Having the end goal in mind will help you plan your way to get there.
• Have the initial meeting with your advisor to discuss the goals of your dissertation and set up an overall timeline. For example, determine when to have the defense, when to send the dissertation to committee, when to send out the schedule poll to committee, etc.
• Create an outline of the dissertation with sections and subsections for each chapter according to the initial discussion, and map out deadlines for each section.
• Meet with your advisor to discuss and finalize the outline and roadmap, including what kind of format (by chapters or the whole dissertation) your advisor expects, and how to maintain the line of communication (face-to-face or email) and how often you should communicate, so that you can get support and feedback along the way.
• Reach out to your committee members to let them know your dissertation plan and schedule the defense date. Ask if they are willing to provide feedback on your drafts.
• Incorporate the feedback comments and edit your dissertation for submission to your committee for defense.

*You can create a timeline table to help you visualize your plan.

Execution plan:.

• On your daily schedule, block off a couple of hours when you are most effective for your dissertation writing. Having this specific time block will help you prioritize and fit other tasks around your writing. Stick to the schedule and treat it as your appointment with your advisor or doctor.
• Limit the distraction during your blocked writing time in order to fully concentrate.
• Set a daily goal. For example, writing 2 pages each day on chapter 1 or finishing the method session on chapter 2, etc.
• Find a place that you find yourself most productive and efficient, and write there.
• Monitor your progress by calendars and project management apps.
• You are not alone. Find someone who is also writing their dissertation to be your writing buddy to help encourage one another and keep each other on track.
• Work/life balance (refer to the work/life balance )

https://www.stcloudstate.edu/elhe/_files/documents/dissertation/time-management-tips.pdf

https://sph.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/StrategiesDissertationCompletion3_8_07.pdf

Dissertation Essentials

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DSE Guides & Templates

Dissertation rubrics, preparing for your cmp course, academic success center services, library dissertation toolbox series, other resources, dissertation essentials webinars.

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The Dissertation Essentials area houses guides, manuals, and templates to assist you in your doctoral journey.  There is also a section specifically for rubrics for each of the chapters as well as the proposal and manuscript.  Along with these items, there are additional resources provided for the ASC, Library, technology, accessing published dissertations, and even some school specific resources.

• DSE Manual (Previously Handbook) Use this guide throughout the dissertation process to support you in understanding the courses, deliverables, and expectations of students and the dissertation committee.
• Dissertation Proposal/Manuscript Template You will use this templates to write all chapters of the dissertation.
• PhD-DS Dissertation Proposal/Manuscript Template Students in the PhD Data Science program will use this template to write all chapters of the dissertation.
• DSE Dissertation Revision Timeline Use this template to create a timeline for deliverable revisions in the dissertation.
• SOBE Best Practice Guide for Qualitative Research and Design Methods
• SOBE Best Practice Guide in Quantitative Research and Design Methods

If you are working on your CMP course, your course will provide information on how to format your prospectus/portfolio.

• DSE Chapter 1 Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when writing Chapter 1 of your dissertation.
• DSE Chapter 2 Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when writing Chapter 2 of your dissertation.
• DSE Chapter 3 Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when writing Chapter 3 of your dissertation.
• DSE Dissertation Proposal Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when combining Chapters 1-3 into the Dissertation Proposal.
• DSE Chapter 4 Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when writing Chapter 4 of your dissertation.
• DSE Chapter 5 Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when writing Chapter 5 of your dissertation.
• DSE Dissertation Manuscript Rubric Use this rubric to guide you when combing all five of your dissertation chapters to produce your Dissertation Manuscript.

Not yet at the Dissertation phase?  Getting ready for your CMP course?  Check out the CMP Course Frequently Asked Questions document below:

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Library Dissertation Toolbox Workshop Series

The  Library Dissertation Toolbox Workshop Series  consists of engaging, skill-building workshops designed specifically for doctoral students. Students will learn how to effectively locate, evaluate, and use information relating to their dissertation research topics. Each toolbox session features a new research focus- sign up for the entire series, or just those that most appeal to you:

• Research Process Guide by NU Library Outlines important steps in the research process and covers topics such as evaluating information.
• Managing and Writing the Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation Dr. Linda Bloomberg's newest edition Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map From Beginning to End is out now. This resource includes an interview between Methodspace and Dr. Bloomberg.

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ISE Graduate Handbook 2024-2025: Doctoral Degree Programs

For general guidelines see  Graduate School Handbook

A. Admission Requirements

• Identical to the MS admission requirements; see Section VIII, A, parts 1 and 2 of this Handbook.
• Entrance preference is given to engineering, math and science graduates with a minimum undergraduate point hour ratio of 3.4 and MS with a minimum graduate point hour ratio of 3.5.
• Students who complete the MS program in ISE and wish to continue on to a Ph.D., will need to communicate their intention to ISE Graduate Coordinator and obtain approval via the transition form signed by their advisor.
• If the student is transferring within OSU, the credit transfer will be reviewed by the student’s advisor based on the relationship to the student’s intended program.
•  If the student is applying to the Ph.D. program from outside OSU, the credit transfer will be reviewed by the graduate studies committee

B. Program Requirements

• Minimum of 80 graduate semester credit hours beyond the baccalaureate degree is required. 30 semester hours credit will be granted for an appropriate earned Master’s degree.
• Minimum of 30 semester credit hours of graduate level courses beyond the Master’s degree. The course work requirement consists of one primary area of concentration (15 hours), two secondary areas of concentration (12 hours: 6 hours for each secondary area), and Graduate Research Seminar (3 credits). To achieve the remaining 20 hours (minimum) of graduate credit hours required for the PhD degree (30 for MS + 30 ISE Ph.D. courses + 20 remaining = 80 total), students may enroll for any combination of research credit hours or additional graduate level course hours.
• The primary area of concentration consists of at least 15 semester credit hours of graduate level course work. The primary area of concentration is a coherent theme of inquiry and study in support of the student’s area of dissertation research.
• Each secondary area of concentration consists of at least 6 semester credit hours of graduate level course work. A secondary area is also a coherent theme of inquiry and study. At least one secondary area of concentration must consist of courses taken outside of ISE; however, both secondary areas of concentration may be outside of ISE.
• 3 semester credit hours of ISE Graduate Research Seminar (minimum).
• For students pursing a doctorate in Operations Research, a qualifying exam is required. The full description of this exam process can be found in Appendix B.
• The Doctoral Candidacy Examination is normally administered at the completion of the Ph.D. course work.
• Public presentation of the dissertation research proposal and work completed to-date. This is also commonly called the ISE Dissertation Proposal Colloquium.
• Dissertation and Final Oral Examination.

Note: Students entering the PhD program directly from the BS degree typically (although not necessarily) fulfill the requirements for, and acquire, an ISE MS degree while engaged in accumulating the 30 hours of course work to complete the Ph.D. course requirements.

C. Candidacy Committee:

Upon arrival, each student is assigned to a temporary advisor. The student and the advisor examine the student’s interests, background and goals in order to determine a primary area of concentration, and possible secondary areas of concentration. This effort will determine course work for the first semester. As soon as possible after arrival, the student should identify a faculty member whose teaching and research philosophy and interests coincide with those of the student. That faculty member will become the student’s program advisor.

Ph.D. students can be advised by any tenure or research track faculty members with a formal appointment or formal joint appointment in the Integrated Systems Engineering (ISE) Department that has P status within the department. Ph.D. students can also be co-advised by a tenure or research track faculty outside ISE, who has a courtesy appointment in ISE and category P status within the department, and by an ISE tenure or research track faculty member with P status.

During the student’s coursework, the student and the advisor will identify other potential faculty to serve on the student’s Candidacy Committee. As a minimum, the Advisory Committee should include the advisor (Committee Chair), one additional faculty member representing the student’s primary area of concentration, and one faculty member representing each secondary area of concentration. A minimum of four graduate faculty members are required for the Candidacy committee. A faculty member must have ISE Category P status in the graduate school to serve as the Candidacy Examination Committee Chair. A faculty member must have at least Category P status (any program) in the graduate school to serve as a member of the committee. Those without either of these two qualifications may participate on the committee only with permission of the GSC. At this point a final program plan, which is signed by each committee member, should be submitted to the graduate studies coordinator. The student and his/her advisor must assemble the Candidacy Committee at least one semester prior to that student’s Candidacy Exam.

The responsibilities of this Candidacy Committee are as follows:

• Make recommendations about courses to be taken and assure sufficient depth in the primary and secondary areas of concentration.
• Assist the faculty advisor in evaluating the student’s progress and make recommendations that result from that assessment. (Course work plans may be altered or the program terminated.)

D. Program Plan

The student, with their advisor’s assistance, should create an initial plan of study and complete the plan of study form that is available on the department’s website. This form must be submitted to the graduate coordinator at the end of the student’s second semester.

E. Monitoring of Progress

As the student progresses, the advisor will provide periodic evaluation and, if necessary, make program adjustments.

A Ph.D. student may be denied further registration if they have accumulated at least 100 semester hours of graduate credit and has not taken their Candidacy Examination, or 170 semester hours of graduate credit and has not completed their Final Oral Examination, and it is the judgment of the GSC in its annual evaluation of graduate students that the student is not making reasonable progress.

F. Candidacy Examination

Formal admission to Ph.D. candidacy is achieved through the successful completion of the Candidacy Examination, which is administered by the student’s Candidacy Committee, under the rules of the Graduate School. If at all possible, the Candidacy Examination will not be administered until the student has fulfilled the University’s residency requirements. When a student is ready to take their Candidacy Examination, they should obtain a Notification of Doctoral Candidacy Examination form through Grad Forms. The student should complete the Notification of Doctoral Candidacy Examination form via Grad Forms prior to commencing their Candidacy Examination. No time limit for the initiation of the Candidacy Examination is imposed, but it is recommended that it take place within one semester of the completion of program course work. Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree occurs at the end of the semester in which the Candidacy Examination is satisfactorily completed.

The Candidacy Examination is comprised of two parts: A written exam and an oral exam. Within ISE, the written exam entails the student receiving a set of questions from the committee members representing the major area and sets of questions covering topics pertaining to each of the secondary areas of concentration. Students have between two and four weeks to complete the written part of the exam, depending on their area within ISE. The two-hour oral component of the exam is scheduled approximately two weeks after the conclusion of the written exam. Attendance at the oral portion of the Candidacy Examination is limited to the student and members of the Candidacy Examination Committee.

Voting Procedures: The examination committee takes one or two secret ballot votes. The first ballot is a straw vote conducted immediately after the student leaves the room and before any discussion of his/her performance takes place. If the decision is not unanimous pass, a second and final ballot is taken after the student’s performance has been discussed. The student is considered to have successfully completed the candidacy examination when there is no vote of unsatisfactory on the second ballot by the examination committee members

Upon successful completion of the Candidacy Examination, the student’s Candidacy Committee is dissolved.

With reference to the Graduate School Handbook regarding Master’s Degree on the Basis of Candidacy Examination, ISE doctoral students not having a Master’s degree in ISE are not automatically granted a Master’s degree in ISE upon completion of the Candidacy Examination.

Upon completion of the Candidacy Examination, the approval of the Candidacy Examination Report is completed by the committee members via Grad Forms.

G. Dissertation Committee

A dissertation committee will be collectively identified by the advisor and the student. This committee is responsible for guiding the preparation of a research proposal, guiding the progress of the dissertation research and conducting the final oral defense of the research. The committee should be identified as soon as there is consensus on the dissertation topic. It will consist of at least three members (one of which is the advisor), at least two of whom should be faculty in the ISE Graduate Program . The committee must be approved by the Graduate Studies Committee. This is accomplished by submitting the dissertation committee approval form (available on the website) to the graduate studies chair. If at least two members of the committee are not from ISE, a request for an exception can made with a cover letter along the form explaining the reason for non-compliance. If at any time a change in dissertation committee membership occurs, including a new advisor, approval of the new dissertation committee needs to be obtained from the Graduate Studies Committee via re-submission of the above mentioned form.

H. Research Proposal

The student and the advisor should utilize the other committee members as resources while the student develops the dissertation research proposal. A final written version of the proposal must be presented to the student’s committee for approval. An accompanying oral presentation to the committee is required so there is discussion regarding any outstanding issues. On the basis of the proposal and any comments or concerns raised, the Dissertation Committee shall : a) approve the proposal, b) recommend revision or additional proposal work, or c) reject the proposal. When the proposal is approved, the committee members sign part “B” of the Dissertation Committee Approval/Research Proposal Colloquium form. The process should follow the general process outlined in figure 1.

I. Colloquium

The student will develop a two-page structured abstract describing their dissertation proposal per the template that accompanies the Proposal Colloquium form . This must be submitted electronically to the graduate studies committee chair along with a hardcopy of the Dissertation Research Proposal Colloquium form, signed by all members of the student’s Dissertation Committee certifying that the proposal is acceptable for presentation (Part “B” of the form). The abstract will be reviewed by the Graduate Studies Committee and modified as necessary to obtain approval. Once the Graduate Studies Committee approves the submitted abstract, a 150-word version of the abstract shall be submitted to the graduate studies coordinator for promotional purposes. The student will present the proposed research in a public forum known as the colloquium presentation. This should occur early in the research process. Usually this occurs within the first two semesters following admission to candidacy. This colloquium serves multiple purposes:

• It provides an opportunity for the student to get feedback on their dissertation plans early in the research process.
• It informs the ISE department and other interested individuals about the research being conducted within the department.
• It communicates to future Ph.D. candidates the scope of dissertation research projects conducted within ISE.
• It provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their ability to present and discuss research concepts (consistent with program objective number 3).

This colloquium should occur very early in the dissertation work process. Therefore, it must occur at least the semester before, and preferably two semesters before, the final defense. If it does not, a letter requesting an exemption must be submitted and approved by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The graduate studies coordinator will inform the student about potential departmental seminar dates that are available for the student to present their dissertation proposal. There will likely be two or three students presenting during the same departmental seminar session. This means that the total time allocated for each presentation will be 20 to 25 minutes. The student should determine which of the available seminar dates would allow more of their committee members to be in attendance. While it is not required that the student’s committee be in attendance, it is strongly recommended. The student’s advisor or another committee member must attend. Once the best date is determined, the student should confirm the selected date with the graduate studies coordinator.

J. Final Defense

Upon completion of the research and submission of the final draft of the dissertation to the Dissertation Committee, the student will defend his/her dissertation according to the rules of the Graduate School.

The Final Oral Exam is open to students, faculty of this University, and other interested parties. The student’s advisor is expected to post the dissertation topic and the date and time of the exam at least one week prior to the exam. Any such persons in attendance, who are not members of the Final Oral Exam Committee, function as observers only. Observer participation is at the discretion of the advisor.

Voting Procedures: the Examination Committee takes one or two secret ballot votes. The first ballot is a straw vote conducted immediately after the student leaves the room and before any discussion of his/her performance takes place. If the decision is not unanimous pass, a second and final ballot is taken after the student’s performance has been discussed. The student is considered to have successfully completed the Final Oral Examination when there is no vote of unsatisfactory on the second ballot by the Final Oral Examination Committee members, including the Graduate School Representative.

Please note that it is our department’s policy that the student shall not provide food and/or refreshments at their dissertation defense.

K. Time Limits

The Ph.D. degree requirements must be completed within five years after being admitted to candidacy.

L. Graduation Semester Requirements

A student must be registered for three graduate credit hours during the semester of graduation.

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Pandemic proved to be a revelatory time for PhD student

Shannon whittaker, phd ’24 (social and behavioral sciences, public health).

If you think writing a dissertation is hard, try doing it during a pandemic.

Shannon Whittaker, who is graduating from the Yale School of Public Health this spring with a PhD in social and behavioral sciences and public health, started her dissertation while COVID-19 had shut down most of the world. She calls it the most revelatory point of her time at YSPH. It was as much a self-revelation as a scholarly one.

“I learned to rely on and trust myself and my instincts, which fostered a sense of self-reliance,” she said.

“I also learned how to compartmentalize research and my personal life,” she added. “Instead of working around the clock, since I was working from home, I treated my PhD like a 9-to-5 job – sometimes a 9-to-2, even – which allowed me to take care of myself mentally while also increasing productivity. Even as the world returns to ‘normal,’ I’ve retained this change to achieve work-life balance.”

Whittaker earned her MPH from Brown University in 2015 after receiving her BA in public health there the previous year. She came to YSPH in 2018, interested in researching the intersection of race, health, and history, and how social, structural, and political processes impact the health of marginalized communities, especially Black communities.

YSPH, she said, has profoundly shaped her development as a scholar. During her time here, she has earned two competitive grants: the National Institutes of Health’s Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (a/k/a the F31) , and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Fellowship . She has also collaborated with researchers from various disciplines on three first-authored published manuscripts.

In addition, Whittaker helps other students acclimate to YSPH as a diversity fellow with the Office of Student Development and Diversity. This is where she said her most significant contribution to YSPH took place: helping create a space for underrepresented students and advocating for them.

“It was here that I learned what type of scholar I wanted to be,” she said. “I came to understand that while the path to impactful science often involves challenges, the privilege of contributing to knowledge production is one I deeply appreciate.”

Whittaker said that every professor she’s had at YSPH has helped shape her, Three in particular stand out. Danya Keene , associate professor of social and behavioral sciences, was Whittaker’s advisor and guided her through the intricacies of research. Trace Kershaw , SBS department chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), “consistently offered unwavering support” in her six years here. Carolyn Roberts , assistant professor of history of medicine and science of medicine, and of African American studies, was a valued mentor. “Her guidance emphasized the importance of exploring beyond the boundaries of my discipline,” Whittaker said.

Whittaker is exploring all the options available to her after graduation, but that journey will begin with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. She said she will miss having as much access to “my YSPH family,” but that she’s looking forward to experiencing life “beyond the PhD bubble.”

Whittaker leaves YSPH with one important piece of advice for the students following her: “Resist being molded.”

“Academia takes a one-size-fits all approach, which does not always work because we all exist within our own context,” she said. “Who do you want to be? What kind of research do you want to do? I think before starting a program you should ask yourself those questions and make sure to check in with yourself as often as possible to stay grounded and remain true to who you are. Also, surround yourself with people who will always bring you back to you.”

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Apple, meta, nvidia. big cap nasdaq 100 names tone it down..

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Nasdaq 100, Apple.

The late October 2023 to early March 2024 rally in the Nasdaq 100 is over and now that things have settled just a bit, it’s good to take a close look at the price action. Rather than assess whatever is said in quarterly reports and parroted in the financial media, it’s probably better to simply see what buyers and sellers of the equities are up to.

You don’t need a Master of Business Administration degree or even an advanced statistics dissertation to tell if the trend is up or down. It’s unnecessary to find the exact words for an artificial intelligence prompt if you can see where buyers provided price support or where sellers provided resistance.

The Nasdaq 100 daily price chart looks like this now:

Nasdaq 100 daily price chart, 5 7 2024.

This index with the heavy concentration of big cap tech and social media stocks peaked in mid-March at just under 18500. Since then, it dropped in mid-April to 17000 before buyers returned and, as May begins, have taken the price back up to just over 18000. The Nasdaq 100 now has 2 closes above the 50-day moving average and the 200-day moving average trends steadily upward.

Here’s the daily price chart for Apple Apple :

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Steve bannon will go to jail as he loses appeal on contempt of congress charges, how can ukrainian drones keep dropping grenades into open tank hatches.

Apple daily price chart, 5 7 2024.

Friday’s gap up above the 200-day moving average comes after the company announced a stock buyback program and a dividend. Note that the stock failed to make a new high on the news which, not too long ago, might have been easily achieved. Is the 50/200-day moving average crossover negated with May’s new price levels? It’s hard to say right now.

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms has a daily price chart that looks like this:

Meta Platforms daily price chart, 5 7 2024.

A big gap up at the beginning of February, a new high in early April and it’s all followed by a big gap down at the end of April. It’s not often you see a major stock like this, a major slice of a major index, trade with such volatility. Meta appears to have filled the gap down as May unfolds. That it’s trading below a down trending 50-day moving average is a negative.

Here is the daily price chart for NVIDIA NVIDIA SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust :

NVIDIA daily price chart, 5 7 2024.

The semiconductor maker so well known for its AI chips established a low of just under $400 in late October 2023 and rallied like crazy until it peaked at $975 in early March 2024. The stock dropped to about $750 in mid-April and then rallied again in May up to the $925 area. NVIDIA is now at 3 closes above the 50-day moving average but today’s -1.72% on an increase in volume is unexciting.

More price chart analysis and commentary at johnnavin.substack.com .

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REMINDER! You can view the ceremony live on YouTube by click here ! Replay available shortly after as well. 

Hello there to all friends and family of the Cullen College of Engineering's Spring 2024 graduation class! In honor of that group, we're bringing back a staple from the early aughts Internet when our undergraduates were born – The Live Blog. 

Check back here for updates, pictures and other media from throughout the day! Myself, communications manager Hunter Corfield and photographer Andrew Dees will be at both of Cullen's commencement ceremonies. We're backstage as graduates lineup, in the crowd during graduation itself, and archiving after graduation. 

Want to share a picture or have your story featured? You can say 'hi!' to one of us! Or, contact us by email ( sjgreen2 [at] central.uh.edu ( sjgreen2[at]central[dot]uh[dot]edu ) ) or message us on social media, preferably Instagram .

For the day's first Commencement, click here !

- Stephen Greenwell, writer and editor 

1:33 p.m. - Our graduate students have begun checking in and lining up for our second Commencement ceremony, scheduled for 2 p.m.! In advance of that, we've gotten some great photos of their mortarboards, and talked to them about their work at UH. 

Alberto Garcia, Khiabett Flores and Catherine Rucas are all earning their graduate degrees in Human Resource Development. 

"We're super excited today," Flores said, with Rucas adding that they completed their degree "one step at a time," which made the task less daunting and more tangible. 

Alyssa Iverson and Kithmini Widanage were also part of this group earning their HRD graduate degrees. Iverson  is looking for a career in the field of organizational development.  

"I'm really excited," Iverson said. "I've been in school non-step for most of my life." 

Widanage came to UH from Sri Lanka, attracted to what she said was the school's diversity and openness to people from a wide range of cultures. 

"I'm excited about what's next to come, but there are also some nerves," she said. "I learned a lot of new things, and I'm excited to see what America has to come for me." 

Poojitha Mudiyala is the youngest person to earn a master's degree this year. The 22-year-old will be putting her Electrical Engineering degree to use in a career with Mott Macdonald, a management, engineering and development consultant group. 

"Education is the key to achieving your goals," she said of her pursuit of an advanced degree at a young age. 

2:30 p.m. - The graduate degree ceremony is now underway. As students queued for the ceremony, we were able to chat briefly with Kristen Toliver , another HRD graduate with a fantastically designed mortarboard. 

"I'm very excited to be graduating with all of the friends from my cohort," she said, before being hurried from her line and into the Feritta Center. 

Inside, Divya Pillendla was there with family to wish her niece, Rishika Elupula, congratulations. Elupula earned her master's degree in Construction Management. 

"We're so happy, and she recently bagged a job, too," Divya said. 

4 p.m. - Whew! In contrast to the undergraduate ceremony, the graduate commencement is a brisk sprint of efficiency. After about an hour-long ceremony, the new graduates poured out on to Cullen Boulevard and Holman Street to celebrate with their family and friends. 

That's where Tiffany Davis , a master's degree recipient from the Human Resource Development Department, was taking pictures with her mother, brother, second mom, sisters, boyfriend and others. She said she's going to "take a breath for now" before looking for a job in the human resources field that suits her. 

This is going to be our final live blog update for the day. However, we're still going to be posting new pictures on social media, and our photographer Andrew Dees will have an extensive gallery from both days up within the week. Keep your eyes peeled on your favorite Cullen outlet to know when it happens! 

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Doctoral Oral Exams for May 20-24, 2024

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Chenan Wei , Ph.D., Physics, Monday, May 20, 11 a.m., Hasbrouck 409 and via Zoom. Dissertation: “Quantum Chaos and Emergent Chirality in Correlated Degenerate Systems.” Tigran Sedraykan, chair.

Sheshera Mysore , Ph.D., Computer Science, Thursday, May 23, noon, via Zoom. Dissertation: “Controllable Personalization for Information Access.” Andrew McCallum, chair.

Wilmar Lopez-Barrios , Ph.D., Hispanic Literature and Linguistics, Thursday, May 23, 1:30 p.m., Herter Hall 301. Dissertation: “Language-Specific Intonation in Bilingual Palanquero/Spanish Speakers: A Prosodic Transition Between Two Generations.” Meghan Armstrong, chair.

Puxuan Yu , Ph.D., Computer Science, Friday, May 24, 9:30 a.m., via Zoom. Dissertation: “Leveraging Explanations for Information Retrieval Systems under Data Scarcity.” James Allan, chair.

Katherine Coughlan , Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Friday, May 24, 1 p.m., Marston 234. Dissertation: “Mooring Systems for Floating Offshore Wind: Mooring Design, Biocolonisation, and Multiline Anchors.” Sanjay Arwade, chair.

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The crazy ways humans are trying to control the weather.

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The world was shocked by the record-breaking rainfall in Dubai last month.

The desert city was inundated with more rain in a few days than typically falls in an entire year, killing at least 20 people across the United Arab Emirates and neighboring Oman.

It was also surprising that many blamed the downpour on something other than Mother Nature.

“The cause is actually from the use of weather modification,” filmmaker Robby Starbuck tweeted . “Play God, find out,” another person echoed .

Johan Jaques, a meteorologist for environmental tech firm Kisters, claimed the storm was brought on by cloud seeding , a method long used by the UAE for inducing rain by injecting clouds with silver iodide.

But the growing consensus is that cloud seeding had little or nothing to do with it.

“Highly, highly, highly improbable,” said Steven Siems, co-chair of an expert team on weather modification at the World Meteorological Organization. The UAE has “been cloud seeding for more than 10 years and never encountered such a storm,” he told the Post, adding that UAE’s meteorology agency revealed that no seeding missions had been conducted prior to the storm.

Even if cloud seeding hadn’t caused flooding in the desert, it brought to light just how invested the Middle Eastern nation is in weather manipulation.

The UAE has spent millions over the last few decades in “rain enhancement” projects, with 300 seeding missions planned this year alone.

They don’t use traditional cloud seeding, in which planes fly into clouds to release the chemicals.

Instead, they employ drones to shoot clouds with electrical charges .

Scientists in the UAE reveal that seeding clouds can boost rainfall by up to 25%.

Playing God with the weather is not just happening in the Middle East.

More than 15 years ago, for instance, China spent billions to keep the 2008 Beijing Olympics rain free , while more recently Beijing — which has also toyed with cloud-seeding rockets — announced plans to develop a weather modification system by 2025 that could provide rain (or lack of it) on command.

Drought-prone Iran, meanwhile, has long dabbled in cloud seeding , and Bangkok has used it to combat smog.

In 2021, the U.K. launched the Advanced Research & Invention Agency (with a $997 million investment from taxpayers) to conduct research on weather control .

Eleven US states — California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, North Dakota, Utah, and Idaho — have cloud-seeding programs, which everyone from farmers to politicians fiercely defend.

In Wyoming, former state Rep. Evan Simpson insisted that the state’s $1.1 million investment in the practice is “ not voodoo .”

And the science backs him up, with research indicating that cloud-seeding can produce up to 10% more precipitation than would have occurred naturally.

“It’s easy to see the impact cloud seeding can have, and the trust and faith local farmers and ranchers have in the program,” said Jonathan Jennings, project meteorologist for the West Texas Weather Modification Association.

And cloud seeding is just the beginning.

If researchers are to be believed, we’ll soon be able to control our weather in ways that once seemed like science fiction.

A Norwegian startup called OceanTherm is developing perforated pipes called “bubble curtains” that can cool the ocean and slow down hurricanes .

Paris researchers reported last year that they’d successfully used lasers to control lightning strikes.

And in Japan, the Moonshot Research and Development Program, launched in 2019 (at a cost of about $1.3 billion in seed money), is developing giant wind turbines designed to “suppress heavy rainfall by about 20%,” said Kosei Yamaguchi, a professor at Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute involved in the research.

Just how realistic is any of it?

Jeroen Oomen, a Utrecht University professor and author of “Imagining Climate Engineering” (Routledge, 2021), calls full weather control “a pipe dream” and “nearly impossible.”

At least not in any great measure at this current moment.

But Karen Bradshaw, an environmental law professor at Arizona State University, claimed “there’s no doubt (weather manipulation) exists. Normal people are just unaware.

It sounds like something from a James Bond movie, but it’s very real.”

The timeline is also open to debate.

Siems thinks we’re still “decades away” from meaningful weather manipulation, while Yamaguchi expects that their typhoon-squashing wind turbines will be ready for indoor model testing “within the year, and then outdoor testing in the next five years.”

In addition to turbines — each about 720 feet high, roughly the size of Times Square Tower — Yamaguchi and his team are also working on a “giant curtain,” pulled by a kite attached to a boat, that would “directly suppress wind velocity, which in turn reduces water vapor flux, thereby suppressing heavy rainfall,” he said. “We are also considering using the curtain to…create rain at sea and preventing heavy rain on land.”

Florida International University professor Hugh Willoughby doesn’t buy it — “My Japanese colleagues are usually much better than that,” he told The Post — and his cynicism is earned.

During the 1960s, he was a head scientist on Project Stormfury , the U.S. government’s failed attempt to weaken tropical cyclones with silver iodide.

Today’s weather manipulation scientists are just “dressing up and recycling discredited mid-20th-century ideas with 21st-century gizmos,” Willoughby said.

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To his point, there are more examples of weather manipulation failing than succeeding. Israel ended their cloud seeding experiments last year after decades of disappointing results.

There have been a myriad of weather manipulation ideas that never quite worked, from “ Dyn-O-Gel ,” a powder peddled by a Jupiter Beach, Fla.-company in the early 2000s that allegedly stopped hurricanes by turning moisture into a gooey gel, to an anti-hail cannon that fired shock waves into thunderclouds.

And in 2008, the Russian Air Force, en route to disrupt a rainstorm with silver iodine, liquid nitrogen, and cement powder, accidentally dropped their cargo on a suburban Moscow home instead of a cloud.

Another problem, said Oomen, is that historically weather control science has “always been connected to nationalistic and military ideas.”

This was certainly true during the Vietnam War, when Operation Popeye attempted to use cloud-seeding to slow down the enemy. (The practice was outlawed by the UN in 1976.)

In recent years, it’s mostly been the stuff of conspiracy theories, whether it’s Iran accusing neighboring nations of stealing rain with its cloud seeding experiments, or rumors that circulated online last January that snow had been manufactured by devious forces “ to rig the Iowa Caucus .”

Altough weather manipulation remains unproven, companies are still pushing forward with new inventions.

Olav Hollingsaeter, a retired submarine officer in the Norwegian Navy who now serves as CEO for OceanTherm, said he was inspired by the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, which was fueled by warmer water temperatures.

“Bubble curtains,” the company’s still-unproven tech, involves perforated pipes submerged into deep ocean waters that release compressed air.

“Bubbles will rise towards the surface and entrain the surrounding water on their way up,” Hollingsæter tells the Post. “Done correctly, this will create a well-mixed upper layer with colder water.” 

During hurricane season, OceanTherm hopes to deploy “a fleet of vessels” carrying “about 60 miles of bubble curtains,” said Hollingsæter.

Although they’re still in the experimental phase, their simulations have shown that just a 2-degree celsius reduction can reduce hurricane intensity “by about 15%,” said Hollingsæter.

Real world results, beyond just simulations, are now happening in the realm of lightning control.

A classical Franklin lightning rod can only offer so much protection from lightning strikes—which cause billions of dollars of damage every year in the US — and is virtually useless for airports or other large structures, said Aurélien Houard, a research scientist at Ecole Polytechnique in France. 

So in January of 2023, he and other researchers tested a terawatt laser, roughly the size of a car, on Säntis Mountain in northeastern Switzerland, a hot spot for lightning activity.

The laser fired picosecond pulses that “ionized the air, creating very long channels of plasma over 50 to 100 meters,” said Houard. “These plasma channels can guide lightning very efficiently.”

In layman’s terms, the layers push lightning in a different direction.

The experiments worked , with lighting strikes on Säntis guided safely away by over 65 yards.

But Houard and his team are working on improvements, capable of sending lightning miles in the other direction. But that, Houard said, would take “a bigger laser,” which could take decades to build and test.

How many of these big ideas become a reality remains to be seen. Some critics, like Oomen, worry that bold claims by scientists could lull the public into a false sense of security.

“We should make sure we don’t over-promise what it can do,” he said. “People will start to think it is a technological solution to a systemic problem, [and] we have to be less concerned about climate change. It really doesn’t.”

But Bradshaw believes we should be paying closer attention to the science, not less.

When discussing her work recently, she noticed that friends and colleagues were uncomfortable with weather manipulation. “People associate any discussion of cloud seeding with chemtrails. They’re automatically skeptical.” 

But they should be more curious and even concerned, Bradshaw said, before the technology reaches a tipping point and “private actors can unilaterally affect the weather than affects millions of lives.”

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