Campus News

New Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Program offered to doctoral students

New Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Program offered to doctoral students

The Graduate School has partnered with faculty in the sciences to launch the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Program this semester.

Available to graduate students who wish to pursue a doctoral degree in the life sciences, the program is designed to showcase the depth and breadth of research conducted in the participating life sciences departments. The interdisciplinary focus of the program reflects the collaborative approach many universities are migrating toward in fields such as the sciences that span a number of traditional disciplines.

“The program expands the conventional departmental model,” said Mark Farmer, department head of cellular biology and coordinator of the program. “Research is already interdisciplinary and overlaps, so this program gives students the opportunity to work with the diversity found within the sciences in terms of faculty backgrounds and interests before they choose a mentor and a department in which they will be housed.”

Not a degree, but rather a portal through which doctoral students enter and are exposed to research concentrations, the program offers a choice of two tracks: ecology, evolution and organismal biology or molecular, cell and development biology. The EEO track enables students to explore studies related to understanding of basic processes that act on populations, species, communities and ecosystems with research opportunities spanning from studies of co-evolution to energy and nutrient flow within ecosystems. The MCD track focuses on the basic mechanisms that control cell structure, function and differentiation, and research opportunities range from human disease treatment to development of new biofuels. Administrators believe that by participating in the program, doctoral students will be better equipped to narrow their focus to faculty and departments that best match their own research interests.

“Pursuing a doctoral degree requires a significant commitment in terms of time, resources and funding,” said Maureen Grasso, dean of the Graduate School. “This program provides students with valuable information during their first year of study regarding faculty mentors and areas of research that will help them go forward in the right field.”

An additional goal of the program is to encourage those who earn Ph.D.s in the sciences to continue contributing in their field. Farmer said that there is a national problem with Ph.D.s, especially women, not continuing in the science field after graduation.

“By showing students what careers can be like in their fields in academe and by pairing them with the diversity found in our faculty, we hope they will begin to see themselves in those roles and pursue related careers after they complete their degrees,” he said.