FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
CHARLES E. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
Participating Units of FAU:

• Department of Biological Sciences
• Department of Biomedical Science
• Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Partner Institutions

• Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
• Horticultural Research Laboratory, U.S.D.A.Approved July 23, 2003 by the Florida Board of Governors

Program Description

Integrative Biology is a newly-approved College-wide multidisciplinary doctoral program in the biological and biomedical sciences at Florida Atlantic University. With administrative offices housed in the Department of Biological Sciences, the Program will begin admitting students fall semester 2003.

Integrative Biology refers to cross-disciplinary, multilevel approaches to education and research in biology and medicine. Achieving an understanding of biological phenomena through scientific inquiry is becoming increasingly cross-disciplinary. Hence, a perspective that cuts across disciplinary boundaries and views biological phenomena as integrative processes that span levels of biological organization is considered timely.

The program will take advantage of current faculty strengths in biological subdisciplines such as cell/molecular biology, physiology, and ecology to provide academic leadership and mentor graduate students. The research conducted by faculty in the program contribute to fields such as marine biology, biomedical science, molecular biology, plant pathology, and environmental science. While the student's dissertation research may be highly focused in one of the subdisciplines, the program curriculum will provide a context for viewing this research in light of its relationship to other levels of biological organization and processes.

The curriculum will be individually tailored to each students research interests and will be built around a set of core courses that emphasize the theme of Integrative Biology, plus statistics; elective courses decided by the student and his/her advisory committee; seminar courses; and dissertation research.

Program Address: Program in Integrative Biology, Florida Atlantic University, Sanson Science rm 136, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486. E-mail: groesija@fau.edu.

Admission Requirements:

The Program will accept students based on the following minimum admission requirements.

• Bachelor of Science degree in a field of biological science or related field.
• Applicants who meet the minimum University standard for grade point average of 3.0 (scale of 0 to 4) and combined verbal and quantitative scores of 1000 for for the Graduate Requisite Examination are eligible to apply. Successful applicants will normally show stronger performance in their undergraduate course work and on the Verbal and Quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Examination than these minimums. The program does not waive GREs.
• Strength of letters of recommendation and personal statement.
  
• International students whose native language is not English must score at least 550 (electronic version) or 213 (paper version) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Additionally, international students whose transcripts are from non U.S. institutions must have their credentials evaluated course-by-course as specified in the Graduate Catalog. International students must also demonstrate competency in spoken English.

Financial Assistance:

Financial support for qualified students will be available as Teaching and Research Assistantships awarded on a competitive basis. For Research Assistantships, prospective students are encouraged to contact individual faculty members in the program. Click here for a list of faculty members in the Department of Biomedical Science.

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