The Interfaces Graduate Training Program is now accepting applications for the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Specialization in Multi-Scale Biology

What is the Specialization?

As of Spring 2009, the UCSD campus is offering a new Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Specialization in Multi-Scale Biology that will be available to doctoral candidates in participating Biological Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences and Physical Sciences Ph.D. programs at UCSD (Bioengineering, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Neurosciences).

This new interdisciplinary graduate specialization aims to provide a unique interdisciplinary education at the interfaces between the biological, medical, physical and engineering sciences.  It is designed to allow a student to augment their graduate training in their home discipline with interdisciplinary training in integrative and quantitative analysis across multiple scales of biological organization from molecule to organism in health and disease. 

Students who complete the requirements of their home department together with the requirements of this specialization will earn a Ph.D. in (home program name) with a specialization in “Multi-Scale Biology”�� e.g. PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Multi-Scale Biology). 

The specific objectives of this program are: 

(1)    To train a new generation of cross-disciplinary scientist who has been actively engaged in life science research and training activities at the interfaces between established scientific disciplines via a formal collaboration between graduate programs from four divisions at UCSD. 

(2)    To provide state-of-the-art training in specialized research technologies through a comprehensive hands-on graduate laboratory course curriculum co-taught by faculty and to students from more than one participating discipline. This curriculum exposes students to high-technology research techniques including mass spectrometry, electron microscopy and MRI that are normally unavailable for formal graduate instruction, and creates unique opportunities for students to work together in multi-disciplinary teams. 

(3)    To provide a unique educational focus aimed at integrative and quantitative analysis across multiple scales of biological organization from molecule to organism in health and disease. This novel theme is highly complementary with many interdisciplinary research centers and projects on campus, but not an emphasis of any particular existing graduate program or specialization.

Curriculum & Degree Requirements

Students admitted into the specialization enroll in the new curriculum, which offers six new hands-on graduate laboratory courses taught by interdisciplinary teams of faculty members who will introduce students to state-of-the-art techniques studying living systems across physical scales from molecules to the whole organism. These labs introduce students to multi-scale techniques for measuring, imaging, manipulating and analyzing living systems. The laboratory courses have been designed to train students for modern research opportunities in integrative multi-scale biomedical science. 

Degree Requirements

Please click here for a detailed list of courses.  

Who can apply for the Specialization?

The specialization is currently available to PhD students in Bioengineering, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Neurosciences.  Students admitted into the specialization will be required to complete a Graduate General Petition form (to be provided upon admission to the specialization) and obtain approval from their home department.  Students in the specialization may be eligible to receive support through the new National Institutes of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) T32 Graduate Research Training Grant (provides financial support) that was officially awarded by the NIH in March 2009. 

Click here for T32 NIH Training Grant Eligibility Criteria.

How do you apply?

Students interested in the specialization should submit an application through the Interfaces Graduate Training Program website.

The application requires you to:
- be currently enrolled in a participating graduate program/department
- have competitive GPA/GRE (Good Academic Standing)
- describe how research interests are relevant to the Program Theme of Multi-Scale Biology
- submit their Curriculum Vitae
- submit a Letter of Recommendation from a faculty advisor or prospective co-advisor from among the Interfaces Graduate Training Program participating Faculty.  Please submit via email to sncastelli@ucsd.edu.

Once your eligibility is confirmed, the admission committee will review all the applications and determine the selection.

Click here to go to the application.

TimeLine

The program anticipates that students in the specialization will be selected before July 1, 2009.  The official academic start date of the program will Fall 2009.  NIH training grant funding may begin as early as July 1, 2009.

Contact Information

Sonha Castelli
Interfaces Graduate Program
Student Affairs Office, 4010 York Hall
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0303
La Jolla, CA 92093-0303
(858) 822-6014
(858) 534-7687 fax
sncastelli@ucsd.edu

 

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