Program Information

Financial Support

Students applying for admission may also apply for a University Fellowship by completing the Graduate Division combined Admission/Fellowship Application form by the deadline. Applications for University Fellowships are considered only once a year, and Fellowships are for the academic year beginning with the Fall Semester and extending throughout he Spring Semester. Continuing/Returning students may obtain the necessary fellowship application material from the Graduate Fellowship Office, 318 Sproul Hall.

A limited number of Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) positions are available to graduate students working with faculty who are members of the Group in Comparative Biochemistry. Employed students devote up to twenty hours per week in the research or teaching laboratories. Students are not required to serve as Graduate Student Instructors. However, students gain valuable experience and should make every effort to obtain this experience with the help of their faculty advisor.

Prerequisites

Graduate students must first remedy any deficiencies in undergraduate training in the physical and biological sciences. The following is a list of undergraduate course requirements. In parentheses are courses at UC Berkeley which fulfill these requirements.

Mathematics	Differential and Integral Calculus (Math 1A, 1B)	2 Semesters
Physics	General Physics, Lecture and Lab (Physics 8A, 8B or 7A, 7B, 7C)	2 Semesters
Chemistry	General Chemistry (Chem 1A, 1B or 4A, 4B)	1-2 Semesters
Organic Chemistry	Lecture and Lab (Chem 3A, 3B; 112A, 112B; or 210A, 210B)	2 Semesters
Physical Chemistry	(Chem 130A, 130B, 120A, 120B)	2 Semesters
Biology	(Bio 1A, 1B or introductory courses in Genetics, Microbiology, Nutrition, Physiology, Plant Biology or Zoology)	2 Semesters
Biochemistry	General Biochemistry, Lecture and Lab (MCB 100, 110, 110L)	3 Semesters

For further information on these courses, please go to the UC Berkeley Catalog. For further information on when these courses are offered, please go to the UC Berkeley Schedule

Program Outline

• Prospective students should apply in the early part of their Senior year and should identify on their application form the name(s) of one or more faculty members in the Group with whom they would like to work. Applicants are encouraged to make early contact with these faculty members regarding research opportunities.
• Formal course work should be completed during the first two years
• The dissertation research adviser must be selected by the end of the Spring semester of the first year of study.
• The Oral Qualifying Examination should be taken by the end of the second year.
• The advancement to candidacy application should be filed by the student immediately following successful completion of the Oral Qualifying Examination.
• The dissertation is to be in final form by the date specified by the Graduate Division.
• Normative Time for completion of the program is 5 years.

Course Requirements

Students proceed directly from the Bachelor’s degree to the Ph.D. degree without taking the M.A. degree. The M.A. degree in Comparative Biochemistry is available only under exceptional circumstances. The Group operates under Plan I, which requires at least 20 semester units of upper division and graduate courses and a thesis. At least 18 of these units must be in graduate courses (200 series) in your major subject.

The student should consult with a Graduate Advisor concerning a sequence of courses to be taken in preparation for the Oral Qualifying Examination and thesis problem. At least 17 units of course work must be completed in the following subjects:

Suggested Courses Units
Advanced Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology	MCB 110 (or MCB 200)	5 units
Enzymes/Metabolism/ Cell Biology Plant Microbial Bio	NST 250, MCB C214 MCB 230, PMB 200D-F	6 units
Physical Biochemistry	MCB 206, Chem 270 A, B	3 units
Other lecture courses 200 level courses in area of research	5 units
Seminar courses	1 unit per semester
Comparative Biochemistry Seminar	1 unit, offered every year

Registration in a seminar course, each term, is required of all students until Advancement to Candidacy and once per year thereafter. Only upper division and graduate courses may be counted toward the course requirements. The student is expected to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.1 in course work other than research and seminar courses as well as to establish contact with the faculty member with whom he or she wishes to conduct research. Typically, students will begin research during their first year of graduate study. A minimum of two years residency is required for the Ph.D. degree, but ordinarily the student should plan on 4 to 5 years to satisfy all the research and requirements for the degree. Financial support will not be available to students after 5 years in residency.

Oral Qualifying Examination

The Oral Qualifying Examination (OQE) is conducted by a committee of four members appointed by the Graduate Division. Three of the four OQE members, including the Chair, must be Core Faculty of the Comparative Biochemistry Graduate Group; the Chair and at least one of the two other “inside” members must be members of the Academic Senate. Non-Academic Senate members may serve as “inside” members of the OQE committee only with prior approval of the Dean of the Graduate Division. The fourth member must be an Academic Senate Member from outside the Group. If further expertise is desired, a member of the Group who is not an Academic Senate member may serve as an additional inside or fifth member of the committee without requiring approval from the Graduate Division. The student’s research advisor cannot serve on the OQE.

Students should ascertain the availability of the proposed committee members to serve. Students must consult with the Head Graduate Advisor concerning the composition of this committee, and the Chair must sign the application to take the Oral Examination before submission to the Graduate Division. Students are expected to take the Oral Qualifying Exam by the end of their second year of graduate work. If the student fails the Qualifying Exam, the examination committee may, under special circumstances, decide to request permission from the Dean of the Graduate Division to re-examine the student at a later date.

The Oral Qualifying Exam enables the Committee to determine the student’s understanding of and ability to think critically about both the theoretical and practical applications of biochemical and molecular research within the biological sciences. The exam is meant to showcase the student’s ability to apply this knowledge to the area of his or her current research and also to related fields. The student is expected to demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge in at least three distinct subject areas. Students are expected to present a topic for their dissertation as part of the exam, but the exam must not be limited to that topic.

During the course of the OQE, the student is expected to (1) to present a summary of his/her dissertation research project , (2) to defend a research proposal on a topic outside the area of the student’s own research, and (3) to display a comprehensive understanding of the principles of Comparative Biochemistry in the general portion of the exam. The outside proposal should be concise, original, and feasible; and should contain: a) sufficient background information to define the problem, b) a description of experiments designed to solve the problem, and c) a discussion of how these experiments would advance the field. Proposed topics should be discussed with the committee chairman and/or the relevant members of the orals committee before the formal preparation of the proposal begins. Both the dissertation research summary and the outside proposal should be submitted in written form to members of the committee at least two weeks before the date of the examination.

Normative Time

Normative time is defined as the elapsed time in years that under normal circumstances would be needed to complete all requirements for the Ph.D. degree assuming that the student engaged in full-time, uninterrupted study and is making desirable progress toward the degree. Normative time for Comparative Biochemistry is five years.

Advancement to Candidacy

Once the Oral Qualifying Examination has been passed, the student must file an application, properly approved by the Graduate Advisor, for Advancement to Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It should be filed with the Dean of the Graduate Division by the end of the semester following the one in which the Qualifying Examination is taken. Completion of the Ph.D. degree requires a minimum of two semesters of residency after Advancement to Candidacy for the degree.

Dissertation

The Group operates under Ph.D. Dissertation Plan B. After Advancement to Candidacy and upon recommendation of the Head Graduate Advisor, the Dean of the Graduate Division appoints a committee of at least three faculty members to supervise the student’s research and evaluate the merits of the dissertation. Normally, the faculty member guiding the student’s research will act as chair of this committee. If the research mentor is not a member of the Academic Senate, a member of the Group who is also a member of the Academic Senate must serve as co-chair. The dissertation committee must include a member of the academic senate from outside of the Graduate Group. Students are expected to meet with their committee at least annually to keep the committee informed concerning the progress of the research. The dissertation must be approved by the committee and the Graduate Division before the Ph.D. degree may be conferred.

Details on the preparation of dissertations for submission to the Graduate Division are available from the Graduate Division.