Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Structural Biology

The doctoral degree is granted in recognition of scholarly proficiency and distinctive achievement in a specific field of an academic discipline. The former is demonstrated by successful completion of advanced coursework (of both a didactic and an unstructured nature) and by adequate performance on the comprehensive examiYou have an unquenchable thirst to understand the most basic elements of life - the chemistry of our being, our fundamental molecular structure, and how our cells self-renew and regenerate. At UAB, we'll equip you to make discoveries, preparing you for a career in research, teaching, science policy, science writing, and more.

Naturally, to prepare you for success in this field, your education will include extensive hands-on experiences in state-of-the-art methodologies, studying a wide range of biological and pathobiological processes. In fact, we're going to give you important laboratory skills to go with crucial communication techniques that are vital to presenting research in both oral or published form. By giving you access to a large pool of mentors from across UAB, all of who are renowned experts in a variety of research areas. Not only that, but with lab rotations, journal clubs, advanced writing courses, and other experiences, you'll have access to all the resources you need to become a successful researcher.nation. The latter consists of performing independent original research and writing a dissertation on the results of that research.

Graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. in Biology may specialize in research activities at all levels of biological organization, with emphases on ecophysiology, cellular and molecular biology, endocrinology, and ecology of aquatic organisms, or on models related to human disease.

To qualify for candidacy, students must take both written and oral comprehensive examinations. A public departmental seminar must be presented as part of the final defense of the student's dissertation. The dissertation must embody the results and analysis of an original experimental investigation.