Biology Graduate Programs
The School of Biological Sciences comprises research groups that span the broad spectrum of the life sciences. Reflecting this diversity, graduate training is provided through two focused graduate programs. Each program features its own research emphases, journal clubs, and requirements for advanced degrees. Multiple faculty members participate in more than one graduate program.
Many of our faculty members also participate in the interdepartmental programs in Molecular Biology, Biological Chemistry, and Neuroscience. These programs have their own admissions processes that are independent from the School of Biological Sciences. Please see the websites of these programs for details about their specific admissions requirements and application processes.
Message from the Graduate Program Director
We are excited that you have chosen or are considering the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah to pursue your graduate studies in biology!
Our school provides an inclusive environment for you to purse your passion for science. Our faculty comprises nearly 50 members whose research interests are diverse, and who serve as mentors for ~90 graduate students from around the world. Complementing outstanding faculty, staff and facilities, the school’s graduate program is highly interactive.
In performing your graduate studies in the program, you will be exposed to a wide range of biological investigation, from molecular structures and cells, to genetics, to organisms and ecosystems and their interactions. The school’s collegial environment, with many opportunities for interactions among research groups, has been a long-standing strength, and continues to be so today. Graduate school is a time to make lifelong friendships and connections as you grow as a scientist and mature as a person. It is a challenging and exciting time, one filled with opportunities to make new discoveries as you acquire important skills and disciplined logical thinking that will serve you for the rest of your career. Pursuing a post-baccalaureate degree can be a life changing and rewarding experience. Our lives were shaped and enriched by our times in graduate school, and we hope that your time in the School of Biological Sciences will be similarly influential in your life.
We wish you the best for your scientific explorations as you move through your graduate studies!
Kent Golic
Graduate Program Director
Frederick Adler
SBS Director
Graduate Student Coordinator
SBS Graduate Students are encouraged to meet early and often with the Graduate Program Coordinator.
Shannon Nielsen
(she/her/hers)
shannon.nielsen@bioscience.utah.edu
(801) 581-5636
South Biology Building
257 South 1400 East, Rm. 223
Rotation Advisor for MCEB Students
Graduate Student Research Programs
Reflecting research diversity at the School, graduate training is provided through two focused graduate programs. Each features its own research emphases, journal clubs, and requirements for advanced degrees. Multiple faculty members participate in more than one graduate research program.
Dedicated to All Axes of Diversity
The Diversity Fellows Program is an on-site, one-day workshop for students with a strong interest in research in all areas of biology who wish to enter graduate school within the next 1-3 years.
2023 Applications will be available Fall Semester
Graduate Diversity Office
Inclusiveness of students from communities underrepresented in higher education, particularly racial and ethnic communities, creates a better academic environment for all students and is a goal we are committed to reaching.
Graduate School Diversity Office
Latest News
Austin Green
I began my research career in 2013 as an undergraduate in the Şekercioğlu Lab at the School of Biological Sciences. At the time, my research interests were very broad. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to do lots of fieldwork, so I started a small-scale project in Red Butte Canyon using camera […]
Read MoreElaine Tan
The difference between the flora and fauna of Malaysia and that of the Great Basin and Wasatch Mountains could not be more different. And yet it was the latter where SBS graduate student Elaine Tan (they/them), whose family is from the former, decided to do their graduate work in ecology and the evolution of social […]
Read MoreDesert shrubs cranked up water use efficiency to survive a megadrought
It may not be enough. Shrubs in the desert Southwest have increased their water use efficiency at some of the highest rates ever observed to cope with a decades-long megadrought. That’s the finding of a new study from University of Utah researchers, who found that although the shrubs’ efficiency increases are unprecedented and heroic, they […]
Read MoreJordan Herman
Few encounter a fer-de-lance snake and walk away unscathed. While working in Costa Rica recent School of Biological Sciences (SBS) graduate Jordan Herman (PhD’20) moved closer to observe a toucan dismembering the green iguana it was having for lunch. When the bird took off and dropped half of it, Herman picked up the iguana’s tail […]
Read MoreAustin Green
I began my research career in 2013 as an undergraduate in the Şekercioğlu Lab at the School of Biological Sciences. At the time, my research interests were very broad. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to do lots of fieldwork, so I started a small-scale project in Red Butte Canyon using camera […]
Read MoreElaine Tan
The difference between the flora and fauna of Malaysia and that of the Great Basin and Wasatch Mountains could not be more different. And yet it was the latter where SBS graduate student Elaine Tan (they/them), whose family is from the former, decided to do their graduate work in ecology and the evolution of social […]
Read MoreDesert shrubs cranked up water use efficiency to survive a megadrought
It may not be enough. Shrubs in the desert Southwest have increased their water use efficiency at some of the highest rates ever observed to cope with a decades-long megadrought. That’s the finding of a new study from University of Utah researchers, who found that although the shrubs’ efficiency increases are unprecedented and heroic, they […]
Read MoreJordan Herman
Few encounter a fer-de-lance snake and walk away unscathed. While working in Costa Rica recent School of Biological Sciences (SBS) graduate Jordan Herman (PhD’20) moved closer to observe a toucan dismembering the green iguana it was having for lunch. When the bird took off and dropped half of it, Herman picked up the iguana’s tail […]
Read MoreINTERESTED IN STUDYING BIOLOGY?
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