Students pursuing the doctoral degree in BCB must complete a minimum of 90 graduate credits of relevant work beyond the bachelor’s degree (60 credits if the student possesses a relevant M.S. degree). At least 30 credits must be in dissertation research. Coursework requirements are similar to those for the M.S. degree, with an additional required course in proposal writing. For Ph.D. candidates, presentation of research work is required each year, and there is a teaching / mentorship requirement as well. Students may pursue up to 6 graduate credits as an internship with an external sponsor.
Upon acceptance to the program, students will be assigned a temporary academic advisor and prepare a Plan of Study similar to the procedure for M.S. students. Ph.D. students are required to complete rotations with at least two program faculty members in the first year of the program before choosing a research advisor; choosing co-advisors in different disciplines is strongly encouraged.
Qualifying Exam and Dissertation Defense
The Qualifying Examination will be comprised of researching, writing, and defending a research proposal. The student is required to successfully complete the Qualifying Examination no later than the first semester of his/her third year in the program. If the Qualifying Examination is successfully completed, the proposed work may constitute the basis of the student’s dissertation research. All Ph.D. students must produce and orally defend a dissertation. The research must constitute a contribution to knowledge in the field of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and must be of publication quality. Students must defend the dissertation orally in a public presentation, followed by a private defense.