Fellowships
PhD candidates are generally admitted with a tuition waiver and a stipend. Our stipend levels are competitive with most major US institutions. At the MS level, there is no financial support for either full time (thesis) or part-time (coursework) options. Funding will be available on a continuing basis if the student maintains satisfactory progress toward completion of the degree. A 3.00 GPA must be maintained in course work throughout the program, and this will obviously be the main criterion in assessing performance during the first year. After the first year, however, progress will be primarily in research, where a clear quantitative measure of performance is infeasible. In general, the thesis advisor is responsible for this progress review, but in cases where there is disagreement between advisor and student, the thesis committee will provide an independent evaluation to determine if there is "satisfactory progress" for the continuation of funding. In the event that progress is deemed unsatisfactory, the student will be provided at least three months notice that funding is in danger of being discontinued, and will, wherever possible, be given sufficient opportunity to rectify the situation. Although the likelihood of this happening during the early stages of the research is slim, students should be aware that all theses must come to an end and thus the likelihood of funding being discontinued increases as the residence time in the program increases. In particular, funding is not guaranteed beyond four years.
Traineeship Programs
- CBI Program: The Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) predoctoral training program provides an interdisciplinary education to graduate students that will enable them to apply atomistic and mechanistic approaches of chemistry to important biological and biomedically-related problems. Our National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 predoctoral training program has been on the University of Delaware campus for 25 years and is one of the 25 CBI programs funded nationwide by NIGMS. The University of Delaware’s CBI Grant is #T32-GM133395.
- NSF-NRT Interdisciplinary Graduate Traineeship: A new traineeship for doctoral students in Computer Information Sciences, Electrical and Computing Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemistry. In this traineeship students will learn to use high performance computing and data science to discover, innovate, and analyze new synthetic and biologically relevant polymeric materials with tailored properties and function.
- GAANN Inclusive Teaching in Chemical Engineering: This is a Department of Education supported program to help better prepare our students for future careers in teaching and research. 3rd year PhD students can apply for support. The program provides pedagogical and practical teaching preparation, a brief mentored teaching experience, and a support community cohort – with an emphasis on creating an inclusive classroom.
External Fellowships
Ph.D. students who receive external fellowships that provide funding towards their stipend will have their standard graduate stipend supplemented by an amount equal to half the external fellowship amount or 1/3 of the regular Ph.D. graduate student stipend applicable at the time, whichever is smaller.