Forming a dissertation committee

The Physics Department requires a 5-member faculty committee plus an outside reader and must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Therefore, the student should consult with their research adviser and core thesis committee and then the DGS about the make-up of the committee and when approval is given, the student should then ask the people he wants on the Committee if they will agree to serve on it. The Committee should be made up of at least three tenured faculty members.

Usually, the make-up of the committee is as follows:

For students in an experimental field:
Adviser and another in same experimental field; another in same field but theoretical; another experimentalist (any field); another that can be any field, experimental or theoretical.

For students in a theoretical field:
Adviser and another in same theoretical field; another in same field but experimental; another theorist (any field); another that can be any field, theoretical or experimental.