Education

Harvard University: Arts & Sciences: Systems Biology

Category Art and Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Harvard University, Science, USA, Undergraduate
Tags Arts, Biology, Harvard University, Sciences, Systems

Introduction to Program and Program Rationale The goal of the Systems Biology Program at Harvard University is to prepare investigators with diverse backgrounds for independent research careers in which combined theoretical and experimental approaches are used to address biological problems. The program is administered by the Committee on Higher Degrees in Systems Biology, which comprises senior representatives from the Departments of Systems Biology (DSB), Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (BCMP), Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB), and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS). Students may choose advisors from any science department at Harvard, including the research departments of the 11 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals.

The Systems Biology program will engage graduate students in creating a new approach to biology, with the aim of explaining how the higher-level properties of complex systems appear from the interactions among their parts. Because both the field and the program are new, this program will require unusual levels of independence and creativity from its participants and attention from faculty in return.

The courses offered in the first year are intended to equip students to use appropriate experimental and theoretical approaches to develop physical and quantitative models of biological processes. Each of the courses offered by the Program will aim to emphasize concepts, unsolved problems and novel technology, and to develop an understanding of how and why theoretical approaches can drive new experiments and deliver novel insight. Students should leave the program better able to identify important unsolved problems in biology, and with an appreciation of how to select problems for which quantitative and theoretical approaches will be productive.

Students will meet participating faculty and hear about their research, both in formal lectures and in informal settings. After the first two years a student may choose a single faculty member as their advisor, or may elect to initiate a collaboration between two or more labs. The research topic chosen may be entirely theoretical, or entirely experimental, or anything in between.

For more information, please visit http://sysbio.med.harvard.edu/phd.

Admissions

Students considering graduate work should request an application from the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Online submission of the application is encouraged; see www.gsas.harvard.edu for forms and more information.