The committee chair typically leads questioning during an academic defense, though they can let another member start. The speaker prefers the chair to ask last, so they can tie up loose ends and manage any issues that come up.
Who usually leads the questioning during the defense? Well, by leads the questioning, it's typically the chair who takes over and says, thank you, Rebecca, now it's time to ask some questions. And I'm going to start with either me as chair, or I'm going to start with someone else and have the chair go last. And that's what I would prefer, is to have the chair go last so they can tie up any loose ends or help control any situations that may have arisen, but it's typically the chair is going to then allocate the questions to the committee members.
