The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University offers doctoral (Ph.D.) programs in basic sciences. The Coordinated Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences consists of four programs, each with a number of specializations. The Graduate Program in Cellular, Molecular, Structural and Genetic Studies offers specialized study in: Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics; Cell Biology; Genetics and Development; and Microbiology, Immunology and Infection. The Graduate Program in Mechanisms of Health and Disease offers specialized study in: Cellular Physiology and Biophysics; Nutritional and Metabolic Biology; Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine; and Pharmacology and Molecular Signaling. The Graduate program in Neurobiology and Behavior offers specialized study in: Animal Models of Nervous System Disorders; Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; Neural Development; Neurobiology of Behavior and Cognition; and Theoretical Neuroscience. The Graduate Program in Biomedical Informatics offers specialized study in: Bioinformatics; Clinical Informatics; Public Health Informatics; and Translational Informatics. A Master's Degree Program in Biomedical Informatics is also available. In addition, through one or more of these doctoral programs students can receive training in multidisciplinary areas in which there is strong expertise across multiple programs, including cancer biology, cardiovascular disease, computational biology, stem cell biology and vision sciences.
All students in the Coordinated Doctoral Program receive full support for tuition, student health services and medical insurance. Students also receive a generous stipend for their personal use that begins at registration and normally continues throughout the period of graduate study. Both international students and U.S. students are eligible for this support. Currently there are almost 400 Ph.D. students in the Coordinated Doctoral Programs. Over fifty percent are women and over twenty-five percent are international students from all parts of the world.
The Coordinated Doctoral Programs allow the students to become part of the exciting and highly interactive research community of faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the Medical Center. Courses are generally concentrated in the first two years. The first year curriculum emphasizes research rotations in three different laboratories to allow students to experience a range of research topics and potential Ph.D. mentors. At the beginning of the second year, students choose their mentors and begin their research for the Ph.D. degree. The basic sciences faculty are committed to providing a complete graduate education that emphasizes intellectual challenge, supportive guidance, independence and sophisticated training in research. Ph.D. graduates from the Coordinated Doctoral Programs have consistently gone on to become world leaders in biomedical research.