MS Plan I (Thesis) Degree Requirements

This degree is designed for students who want to pursue their career in research.  This plan often leads to a PhD program for a more advanced study or a job in a research institute or national laboratories.  Students in this plan are trained in both coursework and research to develop an ability to perform research with original thinking.  Students consult a faculty research advisor to define a scope of a research problem that can be addressed within approximately two years.  At the end of the program, students write an MS thesis and present their research work in a thesis defense.  MS thesis is published as an original research document, which can serve both as a report of scholarly research results and as a demonstration of the author’s research capability and written communication for future employment.  Parts of an MS thesis can be published as a research article in a scientific journal.

The Plan I (Thesis) Master’s requires 24 credit hours of coursework and 6 credit hours of CBE: 599: Thesis as outlined below.

CBE Core Courses (15 hrs)

  • CBE 502: Chemical and Biological Engineering Research Methods Seminar (3) - Offered Spring Only
  • CBE 521: Advanced Transport Phenomena (3) - Offered Fall Only
  • CBE 525: Methods of Analysis in Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Engineering (3) - Offered Fall Only
  • CBE 542: Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics (3) - Offered Spring Only
  • CBE 561: Kinetics of Chemical Processes (3) - Offered Spring Only

CBE 501: Chemical & Biological Engineering Seminar (3 hrs)

  • All CBE Graduate students are required to register for CBE 501: Chemical & Biological Engineering Seminar each semester that they are in the program unless otherwise approved by the CBE Director of Graduate Programs.
  • Up to 3 hrs may be applied toward the MS degree requirements.  If a student completed the MS degree program in less than 3 fall/spring semesters, they may take technical electives to make up the credit hours.

Technical Electives (6 hrs)

Technical electives should be chosen in consultation with the CBE Director of Graduate Programs.  They may include the following:

  • Any graduate level course taught by the School of Engineering (BME, CBE, CE, CS, ECE, ME, NE, ENG, NSME)
  • Any graduate level course taught by the departments of Chemistry & Chemical Biology (CHEM), Mathematics & Statistics (MATH, STAT), or Physics & Astronomy (PHYS, ASTR)
  • Students interested in business management may also choose from: MGMT 501, 502, 504, 508, 511, 520, 526, 560, 564, 598, or 600.
  • No more than 3 hrs of Problems/Independent Study/Research Courses may be taken and applied toward technical electives with permission of the CBE Director of Graduate Programs. A petition outlining the work completed, the number of credit hours earned, and the number of hours committed per week toward the course along with signatures from both the student and the instructor should be submitted to the CBE Director of Graduate Programs (with cc to CBE Senior Academic Advisor) for consideration for use toward technical electives prior to taking the course. 
  • Students may not apply seminar or lab group meeting credit toward technical electives.

CBE 599: Thesis hours (6 hrs)

  • May be taken for 1-6 hrs at a time.
  • No limit on how many times it can be taken.
  • Must be taken under CBE even if student's research advisor's home department is outside of CBE.

NOTE: Graduate level course is defined as any 500-level course or higher OR any 300- or 400-level course that has a “*” or any 300- or 400-level, non-CBE course with a “**” in the UNM Catalog course descriptions.