Second Advisor and Co-Examiner
Doctoral students at ETH are supervised by at least two persons. The supervisor of the doctoral thesis and a second advisor.
The following persons can be second advisors:
- An active professor of a university, or
- A person who has proven expertise in the subject area of the doctoral thesis and is equivalent to a professor therein.
- Postdocs and senior scientists. They can act as additional second advisors.*
*Please note that if you select a postdoc or senior scientist, it is compulsory that you add a person from one of the other two categories.
All external second advisors and internal persons, who are not professors, must be confirmed once by the Department Conference (DK), before they act in this position.
The D-BSSE Doctoral Administration must be notified of the second advisor before the aptitude colloquium. The registration forms to report the second advisor and/or additional second advisor are provided by the D-BSSE and must be used, see Documents.
More information on the topic second advisor can be found on the website of the central Doctoral Administration.
Doctoral students at ETH need at least one co-examiner for the mandatory thesis committee meetings and the doctoral examination.
The following persons can be co-examiner:
- An active professor from another university, or
- A person, who is a proven expert in the area of the doctoral thesis and is equivalent to a professor in this (e.g. a research director from a research institution in the ETH domain, a Max-Planck institute or a Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).
Persons from universities of applied sciences or from the private industry with the corresponding expertise are not included. However, they may additionally be included in the examination committee.
All external co-examiners and internal persons, who are not professors, must be confirmed once by the Department Conference (DK) before organising a mandatory thesis committee meeting and registering for the doctoral examination.
If one of these persons is already confirmed as second advisor, this obligation does not apply.
The Department Conference (DK) takes place four times per year. The dates are published on the website of ETH Zurich.
Please submit electronically the following documents to the D-BSSE Doctoral Administration, if you wish to have a second advisor or co-examiner approved by the DK:
- PDF of the current CV of the second advisor or co-examiner
- His/her e-mail address
- Information if you require approval for a second advisor or co-examiner
The documents have to be submitted at least 8 days before each DK.