Seminar Requirement

SEMINAR REQUIREMENT

Both MS and PhD students are required to enroll in CHGN560 each semester until they present.

Seminar Update as of Fall 2024:

Schedule for students who matriculated Summer 2024 or later: Complete literature review requirement by the end of your fourth academic year semester (end of Spring 2026 semester if you matriculated in Fall 2024). In fall or spring semester of Year 3 give 40-minute department research seminar (20 minutes intro/context/literature and 20 minutes research approach, methods, results, critique of results, future plans) with 10 minute Q&A.

Schedule for students who matriculated Fall 2022 or earlier: Requirements stay as is (560 in Y2, lit review in Y3, 660 close to but before thesis defense) but you can get the 660 requirement waived by emailing Dr. Voelker (cc advisor) proof of scheduling and abstracts for two conference presentations where you were the presenter (at least one must be an oral presentation, one can be poster).

Schedule for students who matriculated between Spring 2023 and Spring 2024: Can choose between the two schedules above.

SEMINAR LOGISTICS

Fall 2024 Seminar Committee Faculty: Prof. Svitlana Pylypenko (spylypen@mines.edu), Prof. Alan Sellinger (aselli@mines.edu)

Spring 2025 Seminar Committee Faculty: Prof. Ryan Richards (rrichard@mines.edu), Prof. Brian Trewyn (btrewyn@mines.edu) 

2024/2025 Sign Up Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qDObvin0u-ssXjzR_9T8naCWgHjrrv9WPg__yflWPFo/edit?gid=15251137#gid=15251137 

Registration for CHGN 560/660.  Full-time graduate students should register for seminar during each semester. MS students always register for CHGN 560. Ph.D. students register for CHGN 560 until they have completed their 560 seminar.  Transfer of credit for CHGN 560 is possible for a PhD student who has already presented a chemistry-based seminar as part of a prior graduate program where the student’s official transcript lists that seminar as a course having a passing grade (i.e. A, B or PASS).  Starting with the semester following completion of the 560 seminar, PhD students will register for CHGN 660.

Seminar Attendance.  Full-time graduate students are expected to attend all seminars (both student seminars taking place Mondays at 4 pm and departmental seminars taking place Fridays at 9 am) unless excused by their advisor. Both Monday and Friday seminars will be held in Coolbaugh 209 (large lecture hall). There will be no virtual  option, unless seminar or an essential grader are remote. Valid excuses include illness, travel for professional reasons, family emergencies, and substitution of different research seminar for a Friday seminar in a given week. To be excused from a seminar, students must have a memo emailed by their advisor to the seminar committee faculty requesting that the student be excused and giving the reason for the student’s absence. The seminar committee considers more than 1 unexcused absence from seminar in any semester to constitute unsatisfactory seminar attendance and will result in that student being issued an unsatisfactory progress (PRU) for seminar and a reduction in the letter grade of their CHGN 560/660 seminar when it is presented.  Students should sign the attendance sheet distributed each week.

Timing.  The 560 seminar must be completed no later than the end of the student’s second year of graduate studies in the Ph.D. program in Applied Chemistry.  The CHGN 660 seminar must be presented before the student’s oral defense of the thesis, with the recommended timeframe of less than 6 month before the thesis defense.  Failure to complete these requirements will lead to assignment of a PRU grade in the seminar course.  In case of a “failed” seminar, student should reschedule seminar as soon as possible. Seminar committee will accept requests for additional slots if all slots for the semester are filled, on the condition that the request is received in a timely fashion and is reasonable.  Note that a PRU seminar grade will result in the student being placed on academic probation, and being issued a second PRU in either seminar or research can then result in discretionary dismissal of the student.

Sign up.  Prior to signing up for a seminar date, the student must receive approval for the chosen date from their advisor and from two members of their thesis committee (excluding their advisor), who will serve on the seminar grading committee.  On the sign-up, the student must provide the advisor’s name, which seminar (560 or 660) they are presenting, the seminar’s title, and the names of the two members of the thesis committee who will serve on the grading committee. Once a seminar date is chosen, the student must abide by that date.  Failure to provide all of this information means the student’s name may be removed from the signup sheet so that other students can sign up for this date.  In addition to the two members of the thesis committee, the grading committee will also include two other faculty members that were not selected by the graduate student.  

SEMINAR GUIDELINES & GRADING

Abstracts.  Seminar abstracts must be e-mailed to Megan Paulson (mpaulson@mines.edu) and the Seminar Committee faculty no later than one week before your seminar.  Abstracts must be sent as a Word document and include a title and references. Failure to abide by this deadline may result in your seminar being canceled. 

Content of Abstract.  The abstract should concisely describe the content of the upcoming seminar. The abstract should provide sufficient information to the reader such that if the reader had a choice of attending the seminar or not, they could make an informed decision regarding attendance. The abstract should provide the reader with an outline of the main points or important conclusions that will be presented in the seminar. A list of relevant references, some of them very recent, must accompany the abstract to demonstrate the student’s coverage of the literature.

General comments on seminar content.  The overall purpose of both the CHGN 560 and CHGN 660 seminars is to ensure that students have the ability to give a high quality, technical presentation to a broad audience, of a standard that would be expected at a well-respected technical meeting, such as the national American Chemical Society and American Physical Society meetings. There are a number of aspects which are critical in delivering a high-quality presentation. This document will outline some of those aspects but is by no means a complete list. Students are encouraged to work closely with their advisors when preparing their seminars. The experience of their advisor, in regards to what constitutes a high-quality presentation, will be invaluable in the preparation and review of the seminar before it is given to the department.

Chemistry seminars are presented to a mixed audience of chemists of all subdisciplines, geochemists, materials scientists, and others. The audience consists of students, faculty and guest attendees. All seminars should be presented in a style consistent with this diverse audience and in a manner that is understandable to the audience. This requirement does not have to compromise the sophistication of the presentation or diminish the level of technical content. Rather, this approach provides the student an opportunity to enhance their communication skills. As a professional, you will be required to make presentations to quite diverse audiences.

While the subject matter of the seminar should consider the diverse nature of the audience, the technical content of the seminar should be at the academic level of the audience, at a level fitting a Masters or PhD presentation. In addition, the subject matter must be presented in an organized manner such that the audience is not only educated in the topic to be covered but can also clearly follow the speaker’s interpretation of the results and the resulting conclusions. There is no unique manner for presenting a seminar on a given topic; ten different people could present ten very different seminars on the same topic and all could be excellent. This fact allows students an opportunity to exercise creativity in the planning of their seminar.  Nevertheless, many seminar presentations follow the general sequence of: Title, Outline, Introduction/Background, Statement of Goals/Hypotheses (in a research seminar), Body of presentation, Summary/Conclusion, Acknowledgments.

An essential part of any high-quality presentation is the ability of the speaker to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter by effectively answering questions from the audience. Indeed, the ability to clarify any uncertainty the audience may have, in regards to any part of the presentation, by successfully answering questions can dramatically improve the quality of the overall presentation. Conversely, the inability to answer questions or provide clarity to audience confusion will significantly detract from the overall quality of the presentation. While a student’s capability in answering audience questions is an important part of grading the seminar, in no way should this be misinterpreted by other students as a reason not to ask questions. In reality, the ability to ask questions is an extremely important skill for all students to develop and, more often than not, a lack of questions from the audience can be sign of a confusing or poor presentation. Since successfully answering questions from the audience can considerably improve the quality of a seminar, audience members can actually help the speaker by asking questions.

Presentation Style. While there is no specific way a seminar must be presented, there are some general pointers to follow in order to improve the quality of the seminar. The presenter should always speak clearly and in an understandable manner. The speaker should show enthusiasm for their topic, as speaker enthusiasm generates interest from the audience. This does not mean a speaker has to be ‘over the top’ in their enthusiasm but should speak with interest and hopefully passion about their topic. The speaker should address the audience, not the blackboard or projection screen. Any slides, demonstrations or visual aids used by the speaker must be of high quality, easy to read or see, non-confusing or cluttered, and be applicable to the seminar topic. 

Content of 560 Seminar.  A 560 seminar should be a 20-minute presentation followed by a 5 to 10 minute Q&A.

Ph.D. Students can choose what type of the CHGN 560 seminar they want to present. The first option is to give a seminar that consists of a detailed, critical evaluation of the literature pertinent to their thesis research, followed by a brief discussion of the student’s research goals and proposed methods. Preliminary data may be presented if the student chooses.  The second option is to do a research seminar. This type of seminar should provide background and motivation followed by a discussion of the graduate student’s own research. Think of it as a talk similar to a conference research presentation but with more background because we have a more diverse audience than you typically see at a conference. Students must indicate the type of talk (Literature seminar or Research seminar) they are giving when they submit their abstract.

For thesis-based MS students, the CHGN 560 seminar must be a research seminar. This seminar should be presented at a time when the student is able to present and competently interpret the thesis data.  The student should present their research goals placed in the context of the existing literature, followed by methods, findings, and their interpretation.  For the non-thesis MS program, the CHGN 560 seminar will consist of a detailed, critical evaluation of the literature pertinent to their independent study project.  If the student’s independent study project includes original research, the seminar should also include a presentation of their research methodology and results. 

Content of 660 Seminar.  A 660 seminar should be a 40-minute presentation followed by a 5 to 10 minute Q&A.  The CHGN 660 seminar should be presented at a time when the student in able to present and competently interpret the thesis data.  The student should present their research goals placed in the context of the existing literature, followed by methods, findings, and their interpretation.  When delivering the CHGN 660 seminar, it is important to remember that the audience may not be familiar with the background material for the topic.  It is therefore recommended to spend roughly 10-15 minutes of the seminar on introduction and background material.  This leaves roughly 20-25 minutes for the research discussion. As such, while it is important for a student to include a detailed discussion of research findings and their interpretation, it is unwise to attempt to discuss everything that has been completed during one’s PhD studies. Focusing on one, or possibly two, areas of the PhD work will allow the student to provide a thorough discussion of the research and interpretation of the important findings, in conjunction with the necessary background material. If the student only shows one or two areas of the PhD work, they may choose to include highlights of the rest of the work, to give the audience a sense of all major directions of their PhD research and their complementary nature.

Seminar Grading. Seminars are graded by several faculty members. While general guidelines can be set for presenting seminars, there is, of necessity, some degree of subjectivity in judging seminars, and such subjectivity is unavoidable. Our experience over many years of grading seminars is that there is generally a very high degree of agreement in faculty opinions on student seminar presentations, and it is seldom that the faculty graders have difficulty arriving at a consensus on a seminar grade. See below for a copy of the rubric that will be used.

SEMINAR FEEDBACK SHEET

Student:                       Date of Seminar:        CHGN 560 or 660:

Seminar Title:

Grader Name/Signature:

Please score each item on a 1 – 4 scale:   1 = poor, 2 = average, 3 = good and 4 = excellent

I.                   Technical Content:

Abstract                                                                                           1   2   3  4

Importance of topic, big picture                                            1   2     3  4

Literature overview                                                               1   2     3 4

Key concepts (Results if relevant) clearly presented          1   2   3 4

Conclusions/Summary clearly stated                                  1   2     3 4

Organization of information                                                         1   2   3 4

Overall level of detail                                                                     1   2   3 4

II.                 Presentation:

Slides quality                                                                                1   2     3  4

Professional voice/confident delivery                              1   2     3 4

Enthusiasm and engagement                                           1   2     3 4

Ability to answer questions                                               1   2     3 4

III.              General Comments (Please feel free to add comments on the back of this form)

IV.              Committee evaluation:      Pass                                    Redo