Career Skills (7 units)

• ENVS 508 Scientific Writing for Environmental, Agricultural and Life Sciences (3)
• Choose 2 units from:
  • ENVS 696B Inclusive Mentoring (1)
  • ENVS 697 Graduate Workshop for Professional Development (1)
  • Other Department Seminar (1)
  • GRAD 697C Workshop for Teaching at College Level (1)
  • Teaching Assistant (GTA) (counts for maximum of 1 unit, while requiring a total of 63 or 66 catalog units)
• 2 units of ENVS 595 Colloquium (1)

Environmental Science (9 units)

Select one from each category:

Environmental Biology and Microbiology

• ENVS 525 Environmental Microbiology (3)
• ENVS 574 Aquatic Plants & the Environment (3)
• ENVS 577 Principles of Ecotoxicology (3)
• WSM 552 Dryland Ecohydrology and Vegetation Dynamics (4)

Environmental and Soil Chemistry

• ENVS 562 Environmental Soil & Water Chemistry (3)
• ENVS 564 Environmental Organic Chemistry (3)

Environmental Physics and Water Science

• ENVS 520 Environmental Physics (3)
• ENVS 570 Soil Physics (3)

Soil and Water Science (12 units)

Select four of the following:

• ENVS 502 Nutrient Dynamics in Soils (3)
• ENVS 525 Environmental Microbiology (3)
• ENVS 531 Soil Genesis and Classification (4)
• ENVS 562 Environmental Soil & Water Chemistry (3)
• ENVS 570 Soil Physics (3)
• ENVS 580 Environmental Assessment for Contaminated Sites (3) or ENVS 582 Reclamation and Redevelopment of Impacted Lands (3)

You must choose a minor course of study

• Intradepartment (12 units)
  • Courses that are clearly distinguishable from the major and determined by the Minor Professor (graduate faculty).
• Interdepartment (9 units)
  • Minor from another department with requirements and a graduate faculty representative of that department.

Doctoral students must have:

• Major Professor: tenured or tenure-track faculty member in your area of study who has accepted you into their program.
  • Graduate faculty who are not tenured or tenure-track may be approved as a (co-)director by Department Head or Director of Graduate Studies.
  • Minor Professor
• Doctoral Dissertation Committee. This committee supports the Ph.D. student throughout their research and carries out the final examination: the dissertation defense.
  • See details about the committee.
  • This committee examines the students research and resulting dissertation and usually has a different set of members than the Doctoral Comprehensive Examination Committee.
  • Generally, majority of the committee should be faculty members from our department with expertise in the research area.

By the end of the first semester, you will:

• Develop a list of courses for your Ph.D. program in conjunction with your Major Professor and Dissertation Committee
  • Suitable courses from other departments can be included in the major program
• Submit a Doctoral Plan of Study that includes:
  • Courses you intend to transfer from other institutions
  • Courses already completed at the University of Arizona that you intend to apply toward a graduate degree
  • Additional courses that you plan to complete to fulfill degree requirements.
• Approve Doctoral Plan of Study by Major Professor, Minor Professor, the Graduate Program Director and the Graduate College.
  • Denied plans need to be updated and re-submitted for approval.
• Submit a Responsible Conduct of Research form

All doctoral students must submit a Prospectus according to the Graduate College mandate.

For more in-depth information on final examination and degree requirements, please refer to our Graduate Handbook. Read more about the Graduate College requirements on Comprehensive Exam, Final Oral Defense Examination and Submission of the Dissertation.

Major professors are required to collect program assessment data at the oral presentation of the student. This program assessment does not reflect on a student’s individual performance but rather is aggregated with other assessments to inform program evaluation. Should you have any questions regarding this compliance protocol please contact Dr. Scott Cowell at cowell@arizona.edu who serves as a contact for questions related to graduate oral presentations as part of the ENVS Assessment Committee. The Major Professor should:

1. Print and use the ENVS Graduate Oral Presentation Rubric to record information during the student’s oral presentation (NetID required).
2. After the presentation, enter the results (student information, scores and notes) for the student in Qualtrics (NetID required). To ensure efficacy, equity and efficiency the results for the rubric should be entered on the same day as the presentation; reporting is done online and requires less than 5 minutes to complete.
3. Ensure the student completes their post defense survey within 24 hours of their presentation. An email will have also been sent to the student, however it is the Major Professor's responsibility to ensure that the student completes this brief assessment task as required.