Ph.D. in Biology

Overview

The Department of Biology aims to train graduate students in integrative research, with a curriculum that exposes students to the major sub-disciplines of biology and a program that allows enough flexibility to develop interdisciplinary work. Our major strengths include developmental biology, global change biology, neuroscience, and species interactions.

Application for Admission

Applications are due December 1.

In applying for admission, applicants must select either the Master's or the Ph.D. track.

Students with an appropriate B.S. degree may seek direct entry to either the M.S. track or the Ph.D. track.

Applicants who were admitted on the Master's track, but wish to change to a Ph.D. track without completing the Master’s may apply for admission to the Ph.D. program before the end of their second semester. Letters of support from three UM Biology faculty, including a major advisor, should be added to the applicant's file. The file must be current. Such applicants will be judged by the same criteria that are applied to other Ph.D. applicants.

Applicants to the Ph.D. track who were admitted on the Master’s track and wish to complete the M.S. degree, should follow the same procedures as all other applicants, but they must include letters of support from three UM Biology faculty. Such applicants will be judged by the same criteria that are applied to other Ph.D. applicants.

Applicants must:

1. Apply online at the UM Graduate School.  Application fee of $85.
2. Applications should include the following:
   1. A statement of purpose that identifies interests, suggests possible research projects, states career goals and identifies a UM Biology faculty sponsor
   2. Copies of any research papers (e.g., publications, manuscripts, senior reports, etc.)
   3. All undergraduate and graduate transcripts
   4. Letters of recommendation from three science instructors/ supervisors that address: nature and duration of relationship to applicant; motivation; ability to conceptualize and deal quantitatively with biological problems, and research potential
   5. A CV listing research experience, professional skills, and any fellowships/awards
   6. International applicants whose native language is not English must additionally submit the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) official scores
3. Request UM Biology faculty sponsor submit a memo of support by email to the Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Biology (bio.gradcoord@miami.edu).  Applicants MUST secure the sponsorship of a faculty member as a condition for admission; the research interests of the applicant and the faculty sponsor should be well-matched; the sponsor will be the major advisor

A limited number of applicants to the Ph.D. program may be invited to interview at departmental expense in early January of the year of admission.

Materials submitted in support of an application cannot be released for other purposes or returned to the applicant.

Degree Requirements

All students are required to satisfy the general requirements for the appropriate degree that are listed in the Graduate Studies Bulletin, whether or not they are listed among the Biology requirements.

Implementation

All Graduate students will be reviewed each spring semester by GAAC.

1. The advisor will review the student's progress to date.
2. The student will provide updates for a student progress database every March.
3. The student will provide written evidence that the advisor and committee have reviewed her/his progress and plans.
4. Each student will receive a letter summarizing the results of the discussion concerning his/her progress.
5. All graduate students shall have the right to respond to GAAC, and, if necessary, the graduate faculty in matters pertaining to the review.
6. Possible outcomes of the review:
   1. Student making satisfactory progress
   2. Student not making satisfactory progress; recommendations for improvement
   3. Student not making satisfactory progress; his/her tenure terminated.

Financial Support

1. The Department intends to support all doctoral students in good standing for up to 10 semesters. Support beyond 10 semesters is contingent upon GAAC approval.
2. Master's degree students usually are not eligible for departmental stipends or tuition remission.
3. Students who do not provide annual updates for the student progress database will not be eligible for continued funding. Students who will be off-campus are still responsible for making sure that GAAC receives the data.  Students who choose not to present at the annual departmental graduate student symposium may be considered as not in good standing.
4. Students holding full fellowships or research assistantships will not normally be given teaching assignments, nor will students be permitted to hold fellowships and research assistantships simultaneously.  Exceptions require GAAC approval.

Curriculum Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Credit Hours
BIL 612	Graduate Core I	3
BIL 613	Graduate Core II	3
BIL 614	Advanced Biological Writing	3
BIL 616	Professional Skills I	1
BIL 618	Advanced Biostatistics	4
BIL Courses		34
BIL 830	Doctoral Dissertation	12
or BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation
Total Credit Hours		60

1. Credit hours: a total of 60 credit hours (including both course and research credit hours) beyond the Bachelor’s degree are required:
   • At least 18 course credit hours that are not from the independent study series, including the two semester departmental core courses for graduate students and at least one graduate course in statistics (BIL 618). The independent study series is:

     Course List

     Code	Title	Credit Hours
     BIL 675	Advanced Study in Plant or Animal Sciences	1-6
     BIL 678	Current Topics in Biological Research - DVP	1

     At times these course numbers are used by professors to teach a new course or a special topics course, however, in which case the corresponding credit hours can be counted as a non-independent study credit hour. Course selection requires committee approval.
   • At least 12 research credit hours (BIL 830 and/or BIL 840). Once the overall number of required credit hours (see below #8) has been reached, there is no need to take additional research credit hours.
   • An additional 30 credit hours from any combination of graduate courses (600 level regular courses and independent study courses) and research credit hours (800 level) to bring the total number of credit hours beyond the Bachelor’s Degree to 60 credit hours. (One example: 18 required course credit hours + 12 required research credit hours + 15 additional course credit hours + 15 additional research credit hours = 60 total; another example would be 18 additional course credit hours and only 12 additional dissertation credit hours, etc.)
   • Students who already have a Master’s Degree in the same field may not need as many course credit hours (consult Graduate School rules on transfer credit hours), but at least 24 credit hours must be taken in residence at UM.
   • The committee may decide that students with previous graduate level courses may be exempt from some of the course requirements.
   • The minimum acceptable grade average in all coursework towards the degree is a "B (3.0)" and no grade may be below a "C."
   • CONCEPTUAL AREAS: Students are encouraged to take courses and independent studies from at least 3 main conceptual areas, and are urged to take courses and independent studies that will prepare them for research and for the comprehensive qualifying exam. Students also are encouraged to participate in seminars and study groups and to take special courses in other departments of UM, at our Coalition for Excellence in Tropical Biology partner institutions, from the Organization for Tropical Studies, or other special interdisciplinary courses. Such courses should be appropriate to their course of study and research area as determined by their committee. Conceptual areas offered in our department include: EVOLUTION (graduate level evolution courses are in the 620’s series); ECOLOGY (graduate level ecology courses are in the 630’s series), BEHAVIOR (graduate level behavior courses are in the 640’s series); GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (graduate level genetics and molecular biology courses are in the 650’s series); and PHYSIOLOGY AND CELL BIOLOGY (graduate level physiology courses are in the 660’s series). Special concentrations in our department and/or in collaboration with other departments include: Tropical Biology, Mathematical Ecology, Neuroscience, and Behavior.

2. Your Qualifying Exam

   The qualifying examination has both: (I) Comprehensive & (II) Specialty Components

(I) Comprehensive Component

The Graduate Core will serve as the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam.  The minimum acceptable grade in each of Graduate Core I and Graduate Core II is a “B” (3.0).  Students who fail to achieve a B average across the two Graduate Core classes will be considered to have failed the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam.  Students who earn As (4.0) in both Graduate Core I and Graduate Core II will pass with distinction, students whose grade average across the two classes is <4 but ≥3 will earn a passing grade, while students with a grade average across the two classes of <3 will fail the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam.  In addition to assigning letter grades, faculty will complete the graduate school rubric for evaluating student performance on qualifying exams for each student.

Final letter grades will use the University of Miami standard quality points:

Quality Points

Grade	Quality Points
A+	4.0
A	4.0
A-	3.7
B+	3.3
B	3.0
B-	2.7
C+	2.3
C	2.0
C-	1.7
D+	1.3
D	1.0
F	0.0

​In the event that a student fails the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam, the student will be given the opportunity in the following academic year to retake any Graduate Core class in which they failed to achieve the minimum grade of a B.  It is only necessary to retake a class if a student earned less than a B in that class (i.e. if students earn less than a B in only one of the two classes, it is not necessary for them to retake both classes in the sequence).  All students retaking classes must have completed their retakes by the end of their fourth semester.  Each retake grade will replace a student’s original grade for that part of the Graduate Core.  Following the retakes, students who earn As (4.0) in both Graduate Core I and Graduate Core II will pass with distinction, students whose grade average across the two classes is <4 but ≥ 3 will earn a passing grade, while students with a grade average across the two classes of <3 will fail the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam.  A student who earns less than a B in a retake, will fail the comprehensive component of the qualifying exam for a second time and be terminated from the program.  In addition to assigning letter grades, faculty will complete the graduate school rubric for evaluating student performance on qualifying exams for each student.

(II) Specialty Component

The specialty component of the qualifying exam will test the student in subject areas related to the student’s field of study. Before the end of their third semester, the student should meet with their dissertation committee to define the scope of their specialty exam. The specialty component should focus on two specific areas of biology that the student intends to incorporate into their dissertation research. Topics to master for the exam may be defined by a specific group of reviews, papers, books and book chapters, and even mathematical or computational skill sets to master. The student is responsible for working with their committee to develop a clear understanding of what individual faculty expect of them with respect to preparing for the specialty component of the qualifying exam. Oral questioning on the speciality component of the qualifying exam will occur at the same time as oral questioning on the content of the dissertation proposal (see below).

3. Defense of your written dissertation proposal: A public presentation of your research proposal and defense of a written research proposal to your dissertation committee should be completed by the end of the fourth semester. A complete draft of the dissertation proposal must be in the hands of the committee a minimum of two weeks prior to the proposal defense. If this deadline is not met, the defense must be rescheduled. Each committee member will decide on a pass/fail grade based on total performance (written plus oral). No conditional passes may be awarded. For a student to pass the proposal defense, 3 of the 4 examiners must vote a grade of pass. If the student fails the proposal defense, she/he will be given a second chance to defend no later than the sixth week of the fifth semester. If the defense is failed a second time, the student will be terminated from the program. A written summary of committee’s evaluation most be prepared by the chair of the examination committee and given to the student and to GAAC. A completed SACS evaluation form should be provided to the Graduate Director and Graduate Coordinator.

4. Admission to candidacy normally occurs after successful defense of the thesis proposal and involves applying through the graduate school https://www.grad.miami.edu/policies-and-forms/forms/index.html

If you change your committee, inform the department with an e-mail to the Graduate Director and the Graduate School with a change of committee form https://www.grad.miami.edu/policies-and-forms/forms/index.html

5. Teaching: All students on the Ph.D. track in Biology are required to serve at least one semester as a teaching assistant in one of the courses offered as part of the Department’s training program.

6. Grant Application: Submission of a grant proposal to a major funding agency (e.g., NSF, NIH, National Geographic, World Wildlife Fund, etc.) is required. All students are required to seek outside funding for their research. This must be a research project proposal.

7. Paper requirement: The dissertation should include at least one chapter based on a manuscript, first-authored by the candidate, and accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal of quality acceptable to the dissertation committee. In extraordinary circumstances, the publication requirement may be waived by a vote of the majorities of both the dissertation committee and GAAC.

8. Ph.D. Dissertation:  A well-written and successfully defended dissertation containing an original contribution to the field and of quality appropriate for publication in a scientific journal is required. A defense is successful if all members of the committee sign the graduate school form and the signature page of the dissertation. A complete draft of the dissertation must be in the hands of the committee a minimum of two weeks prior to the defense. If this deadline is not met, the defense must be rescheduled. A public dissertation seminar also is presented at the time of the defense. Following the defense the committee is required to provide the Graduate Director with a completed SACS evaluation form.

9.  Committee: The committee will advise the student on both the proposal defense and research training. The committee’s membership will be determined by the advisor and student together, contingent upon approval of the Graduate School:

• The dissertation committee will consist of at least four (4) faculty, which includes the committee chair who is the advisor, who must be a member of the Graduate Faculty. Of the remaining members, it also is required that two shall be from the Graduate Faculty and one from outside the department. The department nominates the dissertation committee, but it must be approved and appointed by the Graduate School. There is a special form that must be filed with the Graduate School.
•  One of the first jobs of the committee is to advise the student on which courses should be taken to both ensure depth of knowledge about future research subjects and for breadth across the biological disciplines. It is acceptable to form an initial committee, which has the same composition as the dissertation committee (above) but without the external member, in order to complete this important task of course advising during the first academic year. Students who already have an M.S. in biology (botany, zoology, etc.) from another institution can potentially substitute a graduate level course taken elsewhere for a departmental course requirement. Approval for this substitution must be officially recorded in the student’s records, and must consist of a majority vote of their dissertation committee and a majority vote of the Graduate Admissions and Advisory Committee.
• Committee meetings are required at least once a year (recommended at least once a semester). The student is responsible for arranging meetings; the student should consult with the committee about any major changes in research goals and any problems; memos summarizing each meeting should be in the student’s file.

10. About the time table:

• A polished, written dissertation proposal must be defended to the committee in the fourth semester together with a public presentation of the proposal. This must take place by mid-April of the spring semester or mid-November of the fall semester.
• Admission to candidacy normally occurs after the comprehensive qualifying exam and proposal defense are passed upon the recommendation of the committee and the approval of the Graduate School. Application for admission to candidacy is made to the graduate school on a special form.
• Analysis of data and a polished draft of the dissertation should be completed and in the hands of the dissertation committee no later than the middle of the tenth semester.
• Defense of the dissertation and its submission to the Graduate School must meet or precede the deadline for graduation immediately following the tenth semester unless an extension has been approved by GAAC upon recommendation of the dissertation committee. Notice of the defense and of the public seminar must be submitted on a special form to the graduate school in advance of the defense and must be posted publicly in the department.
• The oral defense of the dissertation must be given during regular sessions of the Fall or Spring semesters, not during summer sessions, intersessions, reading days or finals weeks.
• No student may receive the degree in the same semester in which she/he is admitted to candidacy.
• The indicated dates form firm deadlines. A student's committee, however, may submit a written petition to GAAC for an extension of time detailing reasons for the request. An extension will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances and will be effective upon written approval by GAAC.
• Proposals to change the schedule for any reason should be preceded by a study of the graduate bulletin sections on leaves of absence, full time student status and recency of credit hour, and explicitly should address how the proposed change of schedule relates to these matters. The memo requesting the change also should address the proposed financial support of the student beyond the 10 semesters of normal departmental support.

11. Public defense must be during regular semesters. We reiterate that the public presentation associated with the defense of the proposal and the public seminar associated with the defense of the dissertation should be given during regular sessions of Fall or Spring semesters, not during summer sessions, inter-sessions, reading days, or finals weeks. In extraordinary circumstances, permission to defend during these other times may be granted by a unanimous vote of both the dissertation committee and GAAC.

12. Completed SACSCOC evaluation forms are required at two points during the course of study.  One following the proposal defense and the final following defense of the dissertation.  The student is responsible for providing blank forms to the committee at each milestone.  The graduate advisor is responsible for forwarding completed forms to the Graduate Director.  The student is responsible for ensuring the Graduate Director receives these forms.

Suggested Plan of Study

Ph.D. Program Timeline - Including Program Requirements and Suggested Goals

Disclaimer: This Ph.D. Program Timeline does not replace the "Procedures for Graduate Students in Biology".

Plan of Study Grid

Year One
Fall		Credit Hours
BIL 612	Graduate Core I	3
BIL 616	Professional Skills I	1
BIL courses or other relevant courses with advisor approval		5
Form initial committee
Meet with Committee to plan first year of study.
Suggested Goals: (1) Sometime in your 1st year start contributing to a project in your group that will yield co-authorship on a publication in Year 1 or 2. (2) Start your personal Endnote (or equivalent) library and start delving into primary literature to inform development of your dissertation research.
	Credit Hours	9
Spring
BIL 613	Graduate Core II	3
BIL courses or other relevant courses with advisor approval		6
By the end of the first year you must have met your Committee.
Suggested Goals: (1) By the end of your 1st year have completed 12 of the 18 required course work credits.
	Credit Hours	9
Year Two
Fall
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 618	Advanced Biostatistics	4
BIL 830	Doctoral Dissertation	1
Suggested Goals: (1) Attend a local conference during 2nd year. (2) Submit Research Fellowship Application(s) in Year 2.
	Credit Hours	6
Spring
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 830	Doctoral Dissertation	1
BIL courses or other relevant courses with advisor approval		4
Proposal Defense
Proposal Defense SACS forms submitted to GAAC Director
Advance to Candidacy
Suggested Goals: (1) By the end of the 2nd year have completed ALL 18 required course work credits except for Advanced Biological Writing, which may be completed later once sufficient data has been collected to complete a publishable manuscript.
	Credit Hours	6
Year Three
Fall
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	4
Meet with Committee at least once in Year 3
Suggested Goals: (1) Preparation and submission of 1st, 1st authored manuscript in Year 3. (2) Present research at professional meeting in Year 3. (3) Start planning and submitting Grant Applications(s).
	Credit Hours	5
Spring
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 614	Advanced Biological Writing	3
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	1
Suggested Goals: Submit Grant Applications(s)
	Credit Hours	5
Year Four
Fall
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	4
Meet with Committee at least once in Year 4
Suggested Goals: (1) Preparation and submission of 2nd, 1st authored manuscript in Year 4. (2) Present research at professional meeting in Year 4.
	Credit Hours	5
Spring
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	4
Suggested Goals: Start researching applying for postdocs fellowships/jobs
	Credit Hours	5
Year Five
Fall
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	4
Meet with committee in 9th semester to demonstrate sufficiency and plan presentation and completion of the dissertation.
Suggested Goals: (1) Complete experimental work and data analysis in 9th semester (2) Present research at professional meeting in Year 5 (if funds are available consider attending more than one professional meeting). (3) Start applying for postdocs/jobs.
	Credit Hours	5
Spring
BIL 608	Research in Progress Seminar	1
BIL 840	Post-Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation	4
Dissertation Defense
Dissertation Defense SACS forms submitted to GAAC Director
Suggested Goals: (1) Focus on writing dissertation and final 1st authored publications. (2) Continue applying for postdoc/jobs.
	Credit Hours	5
	Total Credit Hours	60

Mission

The purpose of the Biology Doctoral Program is to engender the research, teaching and presentation skills that are central to professional biological careers in academia, government and private organizations.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate a deep knowledge of a Biological area, and the research skills required to make an original scientific contribution.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to teach Biology to University of Miami undergraduates.
• Students will demonstrate appropriate level of writing skills for communicating their research in professional settings.