Biological Sciences (BISI)

Abstract

The Biological Sciences (BISI) Graduate Program offers a wide range of training opportunities for students interested in pursuing doctoral level research in exciting, diverse areas across the biological sciences. BISI is an umbrella program comprised of four Concentration Areas:

Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics

Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, and Genomics

Molecular and Cell Biology

Physiology (It is anticipated that this Concentration Area will be formally renamed "Physiological Systems" early in 2010. If you are interested in Fall 2010 admission to the Physiology (soon to be Physiological Systems) Concentration Area, please indicate your interest on the Application Supplemental Form or send questions via email to lreid@umd.edu.)

Graduate students join a Concentration Area, but they may switch once on campus and may develop innovative research projects across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Descriptions of each Concentration Area, faculty research interests, and more detailed programmatic information are available at bisi.umd.edu. Although the BISI Program is administered within the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, it involves distinguished graduate faculty from many departments and several colleges at the University of Maryland as well as outstanding adjunct faculty from nearby research institutions. Students may have opportunities to work with participating scientists from - as examples - the National Institutes of Health; Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History, National Zoo, and Molecular Systematics Laboratory; the Food and Drug Administration; United States Department of Agriculture; and the Institute for Genomic Research. Thus, BISI students have an incomparable wealth of potential research options and collaborations that extend from Maryland's College Park campus throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

Admissions Information

All students applying to the Biological Sciences Graduate Program must have a bachelor's degree from a recognized undergraduate institution. Applicants are expected to have a strong academic record, including coursework in advanced areas of biology as well as at least one year of calculus, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. Able students with deficiencies in a particular area may be admitted and the deficiency corrected after enrollment. The Graduate Record Examination General Test is required; the Subject Test in Biology is recommended. On the Application Supplemental Form (ASF), part of the online application, applicants should indicate one, or at most two, Concentration Areas of interest within BISI.

Application Deadlines

Fall

Spring

Domestic Applicants:
U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents

Domestic Applicant Deadlines

Applications must be received by February 1 (January 6 preferred) .

This program does not accept applications for this semester.

International Applicants:
Applicants from Outside the U.S. or U.S. Citizens / Permanent Residents with Non-U.S. Credentials

IMPORTANT: International Applicants and U.S. Applicants with Non-U.S. Credentials must follow the domestic deadlines above if they are earlier than the deadlines listed below.

Applicants seeking admission under F (Student) or J (Exchange Visitor) visas

February 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Feb. 1

June 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1

Applicants seeking admission under A, E, G, H, I, and L visas and immigrants

May 1
If Domestic Deadline is after May 1

October 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents with foreign credentials

May 15
If Domestic Deadline is after May 15

October 31
If Domestic Deadline is after Oct.31

Application Requirements

1. University of Maryland application for graduate studies
2. Academic transcript(s)
3. Statement of purpose/research interests and professional objectives (can be reasonably broad; 1-2 pages in length)
4. 3 letters of recommendation from people familiar with the applicant's abilities and aptitude for graduate work
5. Scores of the Graduate Record Exam General Aptitude Test (institutional code is 5814; departmental code not required)
6. Scores of the Graduate Record Exam Advanced Biology Test (optional, but recommended)
7. International students must submit scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Test of Spoken English (TSE). Maryland's institutional code is 5814; no departmental code is needed.
8. Applicants are encouraged to contact BISI faculty with shared research interests. To explore matches of your interests with those of BISI faculty, check out the search engine on the BISI website, bisi.umd.edu.

	Fall	Spring
Domestic Applicants: U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
Domestic Applicant Deadlines	Applications must be received by February 1 (January 6 preferred) .	This program does not accept applications for this semester.

International Applicants: Applicants from Outside the U.S. or U.S. Citizens / Permanent Residents with Non-U.S. Credentials IMPORTANT: International Applicants and U.S. Applicants with Non-U.S. Credentials must follow the domestic deadlines above if they are earlier than the deadlines listed below.
Applicants seeking admission under F (Student) or J (Exchange Visitor) visas	February 1 If Domestic Deadline is after Feb. 1	June 1 If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1
Applicants seeking admission under A, E, G, H, I, and L visas and immigrants	May 1 If Domestic Deadline is after May 1	October 1 If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1
U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents with foreign credentials	May 15 If Domestic Deadline is after May 15	October 31 If Domestic Deadline is after Oct.31

Degree Requirements

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
The Ph.D. program in Biological Sciences is a research program providing opportunities for students to develop scholarly, innovative, and independent work. Courses are designed to strengthen and complement the student's research. An advisory committee helps guide each student in selecting classes and other learning experiences. Students are encouraged to present their research at national and international meetings and to publish in peer reviewed journals. Seminar series featuring prominent scientists expose students to exciting topics and help students develop collaborative contacts. During the course of their studies, each student must pass a qualifying exam, complete and defend an original dissertation, and present their thesis work in a seminar.

Facilities and Special Resources

The campus and local area provide students access to a vast array of instrumentation, equipment, facilities, and technologies to advance biological research. As examples, the college has state of the art facilities for research in all aspects of cell and molecular biology including cell and organism culturing, protein and nucleic acid analyses, peptide sequencing, oligonucleotide synthesis and sequencing, fluorescence, confocal microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, computer graphics for molecular modeling, NMR, mass-spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Students have access to a laboratory for evolutionary molecular sequence analysis; gas source stable isotope mass spectrophotometer; bioacoustic lab; flume lab; GIS (graphic information systems) lab; and high-speed network access to a wide range of desktop and super-computing facilities. Greenhouses and animal care facilities are available.

We also have several state-of the-art shared instrumentation laboratories. Two center around biological imaging for both electron and light microscopy, including a field-emission scanner and an image reconstruction/deconvolution microscope. Another shared laboratory augments existing sequencing facilities on campus, enabling large-scale processing and sequencing of nucleic acids, with multiple robotic sequenators and real time PCR. Other core facilities provide instrumentation for fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), NMR, mass spectrometry, and microarray technology. Equipment and analytical instruments are available in both faculty and core laboratories for the maintenance of animal and plant tissue cultures, for the production of monoclonal antibodies, for the synthesis and micro-analysis of proteins, for large-scale fermentation and cultivation of microorganisms, and for computer assisted molecular modeling. Support staffing in shared instrumentation facilities is provided by the college, and maintenance costs have been subsidized by the college, thereby providing even occasional users with appropriate training and access, and simultaneously keeping instrument use costs low. This strategy provides exceptional opportunities for research and training, and enables graduate students to perform experiments with instrumentation that is at the leading edge of biological technology.

Students have access to the Smithsonian National Museum and USDA collections of living and preserved organisms.

Library Facilities: The library facilities on campus, as well as their online accessibility, are outstanding. In addition, there are libraries in the local area with specialized collections. The most important are the National Agricultural Library, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the Smithsonian Institution Library. Thus, the University of Maryland's region contains perhaps the most comprehensive collections of books and journals in the world.

Financial Assistance

Students are supported through fellowships, research assistantships, and/or teaching assistantships. Each type of funding provides a stipend, tuition remission, and access to health and dental insurance and a prescription drug plan. Historically, all students have been supported throughout their graduate careers.

Fellowships are offered on a competitive basis. Students who apply by the January 6 preferred deadline are automatically considered for fellowships. There are no separate financial disclosure forms to fill out as part of the graduate application process.

Teaching assistantships require students to assist a faculty member in teaching a course or lab section(s). Benefits of teaching assistantships include building communication and organizational skills as well as resumé enhancement for academic, government, or private sector jobs. It is also delightfully rewarding to explain concepts to students and then witness their excitement as ideas "click" and their questions are resolved.

Contact Information

Students are strongly encouraged to communicate directly with faculty in the area of their interest. Additional general information may be obtained by emailing biologicalsciences@umd.edu or by calling the Biological Sciences Graduate Office at 301-405-6905 or 301-405-6991.

Please visit the Biological Sciences Graduate Program website, featuring a search engine to match research interests with faculty and links to all Concentration Areas: bisi.umd.edu

International students with questions about the application process should visit the University of Maryland's International Education Office website at http://www.international.umd.edu/ies/97 or email iesadv@deans.umd.edu

Sarah Biancardi, Administrative Assistant
1125 Microbiology Building, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD 20742
Telephone: 301-405-6991
Fax: 301-314-9921
biologicalsciences@umd.edu

http://bisi.umd.edu

Lois Reid, Administrative Assistant
2231 Biology-Psychology Building, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD 20742
Telephone: 301-405-6905
biologicalsciences@umd.edu

http://bisi.umd.edu