The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) at Iowa State University is an academia of faculty, staff and students immersed in nationally and internationally recognized chemical and biological research. It was formed in 1913 as one of the first chemical engineering departments in the country. The challenging field of chemical engineering combines the disciplines of chemistry, physics and math and is a growing area that encompasses a wide variety of specialties such as petrochemicals and gas, agricultural products, biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, and foods and beverages. A minimum of 72 graduate credits must be earned for the Ph.D. degree. A minimum of 26 credits of this must be coursework. The ChE coursework requirements include 17 credits of chemical engineering core courses ChE 545, 554, 583, and 587, GR ST 565, ChE 698A, two terms of ChE 698B, and nine credits of graduate or nonmajor elective courses, at least three credits of which need to be 600-level course(s) graded on an A-F scale. These elective courses will be decided together by the student and the POSC, depending upon the research area of the student and can be within ChE or outside. The Graduate College requires that the topics of independent study credits (ChE 590/692) applied to the POS be indentified on the POS form and approved by the Committee. Generally, independent study credits in doctoral studies are indicated only for work done clearly outside the scope of the thesis project, under the direction of a member of the faculty that is not the student's major professor.