Clare Hector, Biology graduate receives award for Outstanding Graduate Student
The Biology Department offers programs leading to the MS and PhD degrees.
We have over 20 graduate faculty members that represent the breadth of the biological sciences.
Our faculty and our graduate curriculum is organized loosely into four research focal groups: Cell and Molecular Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics; Neuroscience and Behavior and Integrative Plant Biology. These focal groups provide graduate courses within each area. We encourage you to contact individual faculty with whom you share interests. Additionally, some biology faculty members participate in the interdepartmental Structural and Computational Biophysics Certificate Program and play prominent roles in the Center for Molecular Communication and Signaling, the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, and the Center for Bioethics, Health, and Society.
The MS program at Wake Forest includes two main components. In consultation with a three-member advisory committee, a 24 credit hour course curriculum is designed to build directly on a student’s undergraduate training. The student also designs and carries out a comprehensive thesis investigation in the laboratory of one of the Biology faculty.
The PhD program is fundamentally research-oriented. Doctoral students take qualifying exams in their second year and mix graduate seminar courses and any appropriate general coursework with a primary emphasis on dissertation research.
The most important component of both degree programs is the research experience. Our students learn to perform cutting edge biological research by working closely with their advisors as they perform their thesis/dissertation research. The department provides funds that support graduate student research and travel to scientific meetings to present their results. A weekly seminar program features speakers from both within and without the Wake Forest Biology community
MS and PhD students are typically admitted with full tuition remission, supported by Teaching Assistantships (TAs) or Research Assistantships (RAs). Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential student/advisor relationships with faculty in their area of interest as early as possible in the application process.
The Biology Program strongly encourages students to complete their application by December 1, 2016 for full consideration of admission and graduate funding. The final deadline for applications is Jan 1, 2017.
For a sampling of recent research conducted by students in our program, click here.