| The
Ph.D. Program |
The graduate training program in pharmacology at The University of Iowa is nationally recognized as excellent. The faculty in the department are distinguished and graduates of the program have gone on to be leaders in the field.
The department maintains an active graduate program (currently with 24 students) supported by federal and non-federal sources. The emphasis of the training program is on laboratory research, which is combined with coursework in basic pharmacological sciences during the first two years of the program. Over the last 5 years, the time required to complete the Ph.D. degree has averaged 5.9 years.
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Admission
Requirements Admission typically requires a grade point average of 3.0 or higher
(out of 4.0) and a combined score of 1200 or higher on the verbal and
quantitative sections of the GRE. In addition, applicants must
have a bachelor's degree from an accredited university and should have
successfully completed a biochemistry course at the undergraduate level.
Acceptance is based on academic record, letters of recommendation, and
an interview. Some experience in laboratory research is a positive
factor in gaining admission. However, each application is reviewed
individually and, if the applicant possesses outstanding credentials
in certain areas, some of the above criteria may be set aside.
Applications from traditionally underrepresented minority individuals
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Ph.D.
Curriculum Year 1
Fall
156:201 Principles of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Spring Year 2 Fall
071:302 Pharmacologic Science for Grad Students Spring Each
Semester 071:203 Directed
Research in Pharmacology -
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Year
1 - Fall Semester 156:201 Principles of Molecular & Cellular Biology - 4 s.h. 072:153 Graduate Physiology - 4 s.h. 071:135 Principles of Pharmacology - 3 s.h.
071:302 Pharmacologic Science for Grad Students - 6 s.h.
071:209 Receptors and Signal Transduction - 3 s.h. - Back to Top - All students admitted into the Ph.D. program are provided with a competitive annual stipend ($24,250 in 2009-2010). The department also covers all tuition costs. The department is one of the five basic science departments in the Carver College of Medicine. It occupies about 32,000 square feet of recently remodeled space in the Bowen Science Building. Shared departmental equipment and facilities include scintillation and gamma counters, high-speed and ultracentrifuges, a phosphor-imager, a fluorescence imager, scanning densitometer, spectrophotometers,gas and liquid high-performance chromatographs, epi-illumnation flourescence microscopes, cell and tissue culture facilities, radiolabeling facilities, and a wide variety of physiological recording instruments (providing, for example, extracellular and intracellular recording/patch clamp capability, miniaturized pulsed-Doppler flow probes, and closed-circuit television microscopy). University facilities, such as the Weeg computing center, gene transfer and vector core, central microscopy research facilities, DNA facility, ESR and NMR facilities, fluorescence activated cell sorter facility, protein structure facility, tissue culture and hybridoma core facility and transgenic animal facility as well as the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences are easily accessible for faculty and student use. - Back to Top - |
The
high quality of the training program is best attested to by the 1995
National Research Council assessment of Doctoral Research Programs.
The University of Iowa ranked 11th of 127 pharmacology graduate programs
evaluated nation-wide in "program effectiveness in educating research
scholars and scientists." Iowa ranked 1st among CIC institutions
(Big 10 universities and the University of Chicago) and 1st among 33
evaluated institutions in the midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin). 
The
faculty of the department are distinguished and recognized nationally
and internationally for their accomplishments. Faculty are also
recognized as leaders in their fields of research by service on study
sections to review grant applications for the NIH, an honor extended
by invitation on the basis of acknowledged excellence of one's research.
Faculty are extremely successful in competing for extramural funds in
support of their research and training activities. In FY1998,
the department ranked in the top one-third of all Pharmacology departments
for the dollar amount of NIH funds awarded. The department's research
programs are highly productive, and faculty and their students are active
participants at national meetings and regular contributors to the scientific
literature. The program attracts graduate students and postdoctoral
trainees of the highest caliber from a wide geographic distribution.
While prospective students may apply to the program at any time during
the year, the Admissions Committee actively reviews application files
between December and March and hosts recruitment weekends for our top candidates
to visit the campus. In order to coordinate these trips for our invited
students with the University's biomedical science recruiting weekend,
applicants must have all application materials submitted by January
15 for admission in the following Fall semester.