Integrated Biosciences Ph.D. Approved

December 13, 2007 – Duluth, Minn   The University of Minnesota Board of Regents, at its meeting today, approved an all-University Integrated Biosciences Ph.D. program that represents more than six years of planning and the collaboration of 60 scientists and faculty members, primarily at UMD.

“Biological problems are among the most pressing faced by society today because of their implications for national and international health, the economy, and environmental stability,” said Gary Davis, Senior Associate Dean of the Medical School-Duluth.  “Most major advances in understanding complex systems happen when we cross the boundaries of disciplines. And this program encourages exciting multiple paths into those discoveries.” Davis also noted that the new Ph.D. provides exciting new research possibilities and collaborations for our Medical School faculty.

Participants on the IBS Executive Committee include:  George Trachte, CMP Track Coordinator; John Pastor, EOP Track Coordinator; Jean Regal, Chair of Admissions Committee; Matt Andrews, Director of Graduate Studies.

Other colleges involved in the program include: UMD Swenson College of Science and Engineering, College of Pharmacy-Duluth, UMD Natural Resource Research Institute (NRRI), UMD Large Lakes Observatory (LLO),and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Duluth.  Participating colleges from the U of M, Twin Cities include the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, the Medical School, the Institute of Technology, and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences. UMD Professor and head of the Department of Biology Matt Andrews is the founding director of the IBS program.

The unique, cutting edge program will be one of only three others in the entire nation and will offer a dynamic new integrative approach to the field of biology.  By emphasizing the new, larger integrative picture of how various biological disciplines interact with one another, scientists can employ multi-pronged approaches to study living organisms and their affect on their environments. This larger picture then spans the relational gap from a tiny molecule to an entire ecosystem.

The primary educational objective of the IBS graduate program is to prepare research scientists, technicians, and future college faculty for careers in the biological sciences.  Students will train broadly in the biological sciences and will also select an area of deep specialization.  The training received in the IBS graduate program will give students experience with cutting edge technology so that they will be competitive in academic, industrial and governmental settings.  Several major employers of biologists in Minnesota have expressed interest in this program as a source of future employees trained in interdisciplinary biology.

There has been an explosion of recent interest in integrated approaches to biological problems.  Such integrated approaches combine concepts and techniques from the molecular, physiological and ecological disciplines that had formerly communicated only rarely.   For example, the structure of genes and the relationship of that structure to function—are now being integrated to gain understandings of how organisms interact with their environments.

The rapid evolution of the AIDS and SARS  viruses, Chronic Wasting Disease, and other diseases require the integration of evolutionary biology and population genetics to discover how these pathogens are propagated through our environment.  Global climate change will affect not only the flows of carbon and nutrients through the world’s ecosystems, but will also affect the distribution of the organisms themselves including other disease bearing vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks.

UMD currently offers a masters degree in Integrated Biosciences.  A Ph.D. degree program in Integrated Biosciences is offered at only three other universities in the United States: the University of Akron, the University of California, Berkeley, and Penn State.

For more information:  News Release UMD

Read about it in the Duluth News Tribune:  UMD to offer doctoral bioscience program in 2008

More News about the University of Minnesota Medical School – Duluth Campus