Core Competencies

Upon successful completion of the program, students are expected to have gained competency in the following areas:

  • Critically design and execute experiments to address novel questions within the primary disciplines of the biological sciences (e.g. molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, physiology).
  • Communicate effectively about science, both orally and in writing, to technical and/or lay audiences.
  • Examine potential ethical and/or social problems encountered during research in order to practice responsible conduct of research.
  • Apply computational and statistical tools and/or techniques to obtain, analyze, and interpret a variety of modern genome-scale data types.
  • Apply expertise in one or more research areas within the biological sciences, gained through original bench research, toward completion of a dissertation.