Students admitted to the IBS Ph.D. program will be assigned provisional advisors who will be responsible for initial guidance. By the end of the first academic year, students are required to have identified two co-advisors and formed a Student Advisory Committee, which will be responsible for facilitating the development of the academic coursework plan and the research design. The co-advisors must be from two different disciplines, both of which must be integral to the proposed dissertation research. The Student Advisory Committee will consist of a minimum of four faculty members, at least two of whom must be knowledgeable in the student鈥檚 area of research; one must be from outside the student鈥檚 research area and at least three must be members of the IBS Ph.D. program faculty. A key feature of the IBS Ph.D. program is the coadvisor concept.These co-advisors will expose students to different perspectives and encourage and facilitate design and completion of a research dissertation that addresses a problem from at least two different but complementary perspectives.