Thesis committee meetings - *prepare* to make the most of them!

Thesis committee meeting coming up? Here’s some advice on what to expect and how to prepare for these progress-reports so you can knock the committee’s socks off!

blog: https://bit.ly/committeemeetings

First off, whose socks are you knocking off and why? Let’s start by discussing what these meetings actually are. With the caveat that how exactly it all works will depend on your program.

Basically, these are progress-reporting meetings held once or twice a year. They take place after you’ve passed your qualifying exam and defended your proposed thesis research project. You meet with a committee of 4-5 people including your PI (the head of your lab)* and several other professors you (with your PI’s guidance) have chosen based on their expertise related to some aspect of your project.

*your PI typically isn’t present in your quals and/or proposal defense but then they are present at the rest of your committee meetings

At the stage where you’re at these post-quals committee meetings, the committee has already given you the go-ahead to start working on your project - they believe in you! And now they want to help you see it all through!

Therefore, rather than tough grillings (which you might get at your quals and/or defense and can feel adversarial as the committee tries to test your knowledge to the max), these thesis committee meeting are more collegial and discusssion-based. Although there’s a clear power differential, it can (if you come well-prepared) be more like a discussion amongst fellow scientists to get suggestions. These meetings can be really helpful! So let’s take some of the scary out of them.

I’ve only been on one side of the meetings, so I asked a veteran committee member for her perspective and advice. What follows is a combination of quotes and paraphrases from Dr. Alexandra Newton, UC San Diego Professor and President of the IUBMB (International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), as well as some of my personal thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc.

Me: What’s the purpose of these meetings?

Newton: The purpose is two fold:
1. To make sure the student is on track for a timely completion of their PhD
2. To provide ideas and advice on the project to help the student have an awesome thesis

Me: What do you look for as a committee member?

Newton: Do you understand your project from the big picture perspective to the details of how you are tackling the problem? Do you understand not only the field, but the gaps in the field. Can you explain why what you are doing is important? Can you explain all aspects of your experiments and techniques used? Can you think of alternate approaches or other ways to address the same problem? And don’t forget to know your amino acids if you are working with proteins...

As to what actually goes into those meetings, here’s what Newton suggests:
What have you accomplished since you began in the lab (or since last committee meeting)?
Start with background. What is the topic you are studying? What gap in knowledge are you addressing? Why is it important to fill this gap? How will you address this gap?
Then get into details - what have you done so far? What can you conclude? What will you do next?

My suggested layout (Bri speaking here) is:
Big picture
Aims
Where I was last time
Where I am now
What is next
Summarize all with Aims slide
Bring back to big picture

As for how you actually lay that out…

Newton: Having a polished PowerPoint presentation shows that you care and this is important. Pay attention to detail in your presentation - no typos, clearly labeled data, only show data you are talking about (so whatever is on your slide is a talking point). Have nice graphics to illustrate your experimental set up.

Bri note: I use Adobe Illustrator to make figures (and I have posts and videos with tips on this)- a free alternative is Inkscape. A lot of people also use BioRendr which has built in science graphics you can use (note: there are limits and some watermarks with the free version)

Figures & graphics are great (and definitely beat text on a slide - make good use of white space to help them focus & steer their attention!) - but don’t use them as a crutch. Instead, make sure you can explain things without them in a clutch!

Newton recommends practicing ahead of time (and I agree!):
“Practice your talk in front of your lab. Pace yourself. If you have a 50 minute presentation, know at what slide you should be at the 30 min mark - speed up or slow down accordingly. If your committee asks you a lot of questions, don’t worry about the time. They have slowed you down and worse case scenario they will ask you to skip to the end.”

note: I (Bri) added the emphasis to the line about your committee kinda throwing you off-pace because it definitely happens frequently! Just go with it - while also trying to maintain some control over the meeting and steering it in the direction you want.

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