Lab Rotations

Students must take three, 7 week rotations in three different laboratories. If desired, a student may take a fourth rotation. It is expected that the student will spend a sufficient amount of time to accomplish the goals established by the research advisor. At the end of each rotation, the student will submit a laboratory notebook and a short summary to the research advisor. A copy of the summary must also be submitted to the Graduate Program Office for the grade to be complete. Performance will be graded on a pass/fail basis. A limit of six rotation credits can be counted towards the Ph.D. degree.

The Qualifying Examination will be in two parts:Part I. To be taken in June of the first year, will be a written examination based on a selection of journal articles given to the students at least 14 days before the examination. There will be a two-day written exam related to these articles to test basic knowledge, comprehension of the papers, and experimental design. The questions can be specific as well as wide-ranging.

This examination format has been used for several years by the two Biochemistry Programs and was adopted a year ago by the Cell and Developmental Biology Program. The examination will be prepared and graded on a pass/fail basis by a committee of members representing the different programs.

Part II. To be taken by June 15 of the second year, at the latest. The student will write a proposal that will be defended orally before a committee. The proposal will contain a hypothesis with specific aims, background and significance of the hypothesis, and a plan for accomplishing the research. The purpose of this part of the examination is to determine if the student is intellectually prepared to begin dissertation research.

The written research proposal will be presented to the Examination Committee of four faculty members at least a week before the examination.