Integrative Biology - PhD

Integrative Biology is a multidisciplinary doctoral program of the Department of Biological Sciences of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science with the participation of other departments and colleges at Florida Atlantic University including the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute among other FAU entities.  FAU's Partner Institutions—the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute of Florida—also contribute expertise to this program.  The program admitted its first students in Fall 2003. 

Achieving an understanding of biological phenomena through scientific inquiry is becoming increasingly cross-disciplinary.  Integrative biology refers to interdisciplinary, multilevel approaches to education and research in the biological sciences.  The program takes advantage of current faculty strengths in biological sub-disciplines such as environmental science, organismal biology, marine science, neuroscience and cellular biology to provide academic leadership and mentor graduate students.  The Integrative Biology program focuses on the relationship between cell/molecular functions and experimental biology in the broad sense, with a view to connectivity between levels of biological organization and biological processes. The Integrative Biology program core courses and research elements will emphasize this theme.   The curriculum is individually tailored to each student's research interests and built around a set of core courses that emphasize 1) the theme of integrative biology, 2) scientific communication, 3) statistics, 4) elective courses chosen by the student and an advisory committee, 5) seminar courses and 6) dissertation research.