INFORMATION ABOUT THE PH.D. PROGRAM

 

Prospective Students*	Current Students
Degree Objectives Admission Criteria Curriculum Qualifying Exam Research and Dissertation Financial Support	Courses Academic Awards ID Program Seminar
Admissions Information: School of Public Health UC Berkeley Graduate Division	Meet the Current Students here

* The following content is for informational purposes only.
Please contact the ID Division Manager
and refer to the links listed under "Admissions Information" above
for official information on the requirements for admission.

 

DEGREE OBJECTIVES

The objective of this program is to provide students with research-oriented pursuits that will train them to design and implement independent investigations and advance the fundamental knowledge of infectious disease agents and their interactions with the human host and the environment.

The goal is to promote health by integration of basic research and applied technologies for the development of new approaches for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control of infectious disease in humans.

This program crosses traditional departmental boundaries to combine clinical, epidemiological and basic laboratory research strategies in modern biology and apply these to specific infectious disease problems affecting human populations. Thus, students that matriculate from this program will acquire expertise in fundamental infectious disease research for which there is demand from academic institutions, local and national government agencies, and biotechnology companies.

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ADMISSION CRITERIA

Applicants with a B.A. or B.S. degree, typically in the biological sciences, from accredited institutions must meet the following minimal qualifications for admission:

1.  Satisfactory record of scholarship (minimum GPA of 3.0)
2. Evidence of significant intellectual potential (GRE scores)
3. Demonstrated competence in English

Final selection for admission follows the ranking of all aplicants on the basis of academic record, intellectual potential, preparation, letters of recommendation, research interests, and overall promise, as well as availability of enrollment allocation (determined by the Campus) for the program. Admissions are limited to the top 10% of the applicants depending on available allotment. Because a major part of the program is laboratory research training, each admitted student must be acceptable to at least three faculty who would commit to providing research training in their laboratory.

The following subjects are normally required as undergraduate preparation for all candidates. Deficiencies must be made up early during the graduate program.

1. Mathematics: calculus; one course in probability or statistics.
2. Physics: general physics.
3. Chemistry and Biochemistry: inorganic chemistry; organic chemistry; biochemistry and associated laboratories.
4. Biology: general biology lecture and laboratory; genetics and a basic course in molecular biology.

There is no requirement for a foreign language. Applicants are reviewed by the Group Admissions Committee appointed by the Group Chair, and are considered for entry in the Fall semester only. Admission recommendations are forwarded to the Dean of the Graduate Division for final approval.

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CURRICULUM

Program of Study
In addition to the minimal core course requirements (listed below) each student shall take additional courses selected in consultation with the major professor and/or Graduate Advisor and approved by the Group Executive Faculty Committee. The specific courses will not be listed here since this part of the student’s curriculum will be tailored to meet identified professional career goals. In addition, laboratory rotations, teaching, Candidacy examination, research resulting in a dissertation and a culminating seminar are required for completion of the Ph.D. degree.

Unit requiremens for the Doctor of Philosophy:
The minimum requirements include:

1. General training in molecular biology, epidemiology, statistics, and research ethics
2. Specific training in infectious disease and immunology

In addition, students must take other courses and seminars in fields related to their major interest to obtain more specialized preparation. It is expected that students will complete a minimum of 30 units of predominantly graduate-level courses, in addition to 4 units of graduate seminar.

During the first three to four semesters of the program, doctoral students complete all or most of the course work required for the degree, and rotate through the research laboratories of one to three faculty members, who evaluate the student’s ability to conduct laboratory research. This allows the student to determine what research opportunities are available to them, to learn new research methods that will be of value in their subsequent dissertation research, and to decide on a suitable research project for their dissertation. The first rotation begins in the Spring semester and each lasts for 10 weeks. Students may elect to rotate through only one laboratory if mutually agreed by the student, faculty mentor, and program Chair.

Required and recommended courses, including teaching requirement:
The following minimum core graduate courses, or their equivalent, are required of all students in the Graduate Group. These courses should be taken before the Qualifying Examination Committee is appointed, and the student must receive a "B" or higher grade average in these courses, except seminars that can be taken on a S/U basis.

Group I: Infectious Diseases (three courses)
1) PH 260A Principles of Infectious Diseases, Part I
2) PH 260B Principles of Infectious Diseases, Part II
3) And one of the following:
PH 261 Advanced Medical Virology
PH 262 Molecular Basis of Bacterial Pathogenesis
PH 265 Molecular Parasitology
PH 266 Viruses & Cancer

Group II: Immunology (one course)
1) MCB 250 Advanced Immunology

Group III: Molecular Biology (one course)
MCB 110 General Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Group IV: Epidemiology and Biostatistics (two courses)
1) PH 141P Introduction to Biostatistics (summer session only), or
PH 245 Introduction to Multivariate Statistics
2) PH 253B Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases, or
PH 260E Molecular Epidemiology

Group V: Research (two courses)
1) PH 276 Conduct and Integrity in Research
2) PH 293 Current Topics in Infectious Disease and Immunity (one per semester)

In addition to the required courses listed above, students will elect additional course work appropriate to the student’s area of research interest with the guidance of the Graduate Advisor and other faculty.

Teaching Requirement:
One semester as a Graduate Student Instructor in a laboratory course or some other course approved by the Graduate Advisor.

Advancement to Candidacy and Dissertation:
The Candidacy examination is taken no later than the 4th semester.  Within three months of passing the examination, the student is expected to apply for advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree, and then complete the requirements for the degree under Plan B of the Graduate Division, by submitting an acceptable dissertation on a suitable research question in a timely fashion.

Culminating Seminar:
Within the three months prior to filing the dissertation, the student will give an oral seminar to the members of the Graduate Group describing the dissertation research conducted.

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QUALIFYING EXAMINATION

A qualifying examination for advancement to candidacy is usually taken late in the second year or early in the third year of graduate study, but only after all course requirements have been completed with a grade-point average of at least 3.0 (4-point scale), excluding lower-division courses, seminars and research. The Graduate Advisor nominates a four-member committee to administer the examination, which must be approved by the Chair of the Executive Faculty Committee for the Graduate Group and then approved and appointed by the Dean of the Graduate Division. One member of this committee must be an academic senate member from another department on the Berkeley campus who is not a faculty member in the Graduate Group in Infectious Diseases and Immunity. The Research Advisor for the student's dissertation may not serve on this committee.

The Ph.D. qualifying examination consists of an oral defense of two written research proposals (10-15 pages each). One proposal can be on the student's proposed dissertation research problem, but the other must be on a research problem in an area unrelated to the dissertation research. The Chair of the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination Committee must approve the research problems for both proposals. During the examination, questions by the Committee focus on the background and theory of the proposed research, the rationale for the proposed methods of data analysis, etc., and not on actual research results. The latter is a function of the student's Dissertation Committee. The purpose of the examination is to test the student's mastery of a broad area of knowledge reflecting the interdisciplinary preparation of an approved course of study.

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RESEARCH AND DISSERTATION

The research for the dissertation is conducted under the guidance of a three (or more) member Dissertation Committee, for which the student's research mentor is normally the Committee Chair, and includes an outside member who is a UC Berkeley academic senate member and not a member of the Graduate Group in Infectious Diseases and Immunity. The composition of the committee is subject to the approval of the Dean of the Graduate Division. One member of the committee may be non-Berkeley Academic Senate with approval of the Dean of the Graduate Division.

The research preceptor is typically selected by the student after obtaining research experience through laboratory rotations. The student is thus acquainted with the research opportunities available in several laboratories, and can evaluate these opportunities in the context of their personal interests. Students with interests that are clearly defined and are not identified among the Graduate Group faculty, but can be identified among faculty at Berkeley or UCSF outside of the Graduate Group, may elect through the direct mentorship of a Graduate Group member to conduct their research in a laboratory other than one represented in the Graduate Group.

The student presents a written research proposal to the committee prior to formally commencing the research. This proposal results from working closely with the Candidate's research preceptor, and usually involves the acquisition of preliminary data. The candidate must consult with each member of the committee as soon as possible after advancement to candidacy, and periodically (minimally twice per year) thereafter, to evaluate and monitor the student's progress and provide guidance to the student's research. It is expected that the student's research will be of sufficient quality to be accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. A total of three first-author publications is typically considered sufficient to write the dissertation. The emphasis on publication of student research, rather than merely completing a dissertation, is an intrinsic component of the Program's training experience and one of its unique strengths.

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT

The program is supported by a NIH Training Grant. In addition, financial support is available from several other sources. Extramural sources of predoctoral fellowships are available from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Science Foundation and private sources. Graduate students are encouraged to apply for these fellowships, but they require one year of lead-time and institutional sponsorship. Intramural sources include Graduate Fellowships administered through the Graduate Division. All prospective applicants who wish to be considered for graduate fellowships beginning in the fall semester must apply by December 1st of the preceding year. The number of Graduate Fellowships awarded each year is limited, and the competition for them is highly competitive. Teaching and research assistantships are awarded and administered by the School of Public Health division of the student's major professor and the major professor, respectively.

United States citizens who are not California residents can establish residency after one year and are then no longer subject to out-of-state tuition.

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