Ph.D. Program Overview
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Biomolecular Sciences Doctoral Program represents a highly interdisciplinary research program that offers students the opportunity to combine studies from traditional science disciplines to solve important cross-cutting problems at the interface of contemporary fields in the biomolecular sciences. The program provides training in areas including biochemistry, bioinformatics, biophysics, cell biology, computational biology, and molecular biology to foster an integrated and quantitative approach to biomolecular studies. The three courses of the core sequence will be taught by faculty in the departments of Biological Sciences (BMOL 601), Chemistry and Biochemistry (BMOL 602), and Physics (BMOL 603), in order to expose students in the program to the perspectives of each of these fields. Besides fulfilling required coursework, a student must pass preliminary and comprehensive examinations, and must complete a dissertation representing an original and significant research contribution in the biomolecular sciences. Each student works under the guidance of an interdisciplinary supervisory committee chaired by the student’s major advisor. The goal of the program is to train scientists who conduct high-quality independent research and work as part of an interdisciplinary team to improve the understanding of the complex nature of molecules in biological systems.