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Molecular Pharmaceutics Program Overview

IMPORTANT NOTICE: GRE SCORES ARE WAIVED AND APPLICATION FEE WAIVERS ARE AVAILABLE

The Department of Molecular Pharmaceutics offers a Ph.D. degree program through the Graduate School of the University of Utah. The program seeks to prepare graduate students to function independently, competently and technically in a variety of settings including academic, research, administrative, business management, legal, regulatory and investment career tracks.  This goal is accomplished through formal didactic courses, seminars and journal clubs, laboratory research rotations, and dissertation research. Every attempt is made by the faculty to help the student complete the program in a timely fashion. Typically, students graduate within 5 years of entering the program, although the nature of some projects and approaches requires a longer time commitment for full completion of the dissertation work.

 

 

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Ph.D. degree program

The Department of Molecular Pharmaceutics offers a Ph.D. degree program through the Graduate School of the University of Utah. The program seeks to prepare graduate students to function independently, competently and technically in a variety of settings including academic, research, administrative, business management, legal, regulatory and investment career tracks.  This goal is accomplished through formal didactic courses, seminars and journal clubs, laboratory research rotations, and dissertation research. Every attempt is made by the faculty to help the student complete the program in a timely fashion. Typically, students graduate within 5 years of entering the program, although the nature of some projects and approaches requires a longer time commitment for full completion of the dissertation work.

Chair’s Philosophy

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The pursuit of a Ph.D. degree is a transient, temporary, intensive professional training experience to be pursued and completed as directly and expediently as possible.  As such it is neither a vocation nor a job.  The doctoral experience is expected to be enriching and rigorous; the doctoral student is expected to be productive, professional, focused and efficient. Financial support provided to each student is at the discretion of specific faculty advisor with specific technical objectives, deliverables and intellectual products anticipated and expected.  Such support is a privilege for study and student productivity should be an expected deliverable.  This student-advisor relationship is augmented by fulfilling the formal didactic training components, the research requirements, and by the regular, critical review and input of the student’s doctoral supervisory committee.  As the department can only improve through collective work and dedicated group efforts involving students and faculty, consistent student participation in the wide variety of required and elective department activities is expected of all students.  Student leadership, initiative and contributions to Department progress and growth can take numerous forms. 

In addition to personal research productivity, extra student-based efforts in teaching/curriculum improvement, inter-student networking and morale building exercises, research support and grant writing, interfacing with other graduate student groups, faculty committees and College leaders, and outreach service to the off-campus lay-person and on-campus undergraduate communities are some examples encouraged by the Chair to assist the department’s continual quest for improvement and international recognition.  The Department’s Fox and College’s Wolf prizes recognize student-initiated leadership, impact and creative contributions “beyond the call” in this regard.

Department Mission Statement: The Department of Molecular Pharmaceutics seeks to create highly trained, versatile experts in the diverse sets of scientific and engineering disciplines that together represent the modern field of pharmaceutics.  These experts will serve to lead the world’s industries and academic institutions to forward the field, foster innovation and progress, and endeavor to improve human therapies to benefit patient quality of life.   The Department strives to be internationally recognized as a top-tier education and research program in pharmaceutics through innovative teaching and training, and creative research approaches that provide effective solutions to challenging clinical therapeutic problems. The Department’s faculty is centric to achieving these academic performance goals and in fully supporting the mission of the College of Pharmacy and the broader University’s academic mission and function as mandated by the State of Utah. Excellence can only be achieved through consistent participation of outstanding students and faculty.  The Department seeks to attract the best and brightest students and faculty by creating a welcoming environment to foster success and creativity, and encourage enduring leadership using skills crucial for current global pharmaceutical employment.  To capture the unique values and richness that arise from differences of culture and circumstance, as well as contrasting worldviews, we are committed to consistent and dedicated efforts to attract and retain diverse faculty and student populations.

Our talented faculty are well known nationally and globally, and we continue to pass the tradition of excellence onto our students. Our promise to our students is a legacy of caring, we are offering a quality degree program to ensure our students succeed with the education and skills to advance their careers in academia, research, and industry.

The University of Utah, College of Pharmacy has consistently been ranked in the top 10 every year since 1975. The Department of Molecular Pharmaceutics has been consistently ranked in the top ten universities for funding with the National Institutes of Health funding and research productivity. Each year our department receives a combined total of $5 million dollars in grants and research funding. Each year our graduate students benefit from this funding for their research, publications, and results.

Our department steadily attracts academically- and professionally- talented students. While our program offers a rigorous didactic and experimental education curriculums, our students also benefit from our research facilities, and healthcare practice settings. As a worldwide recognized leader in Molecular Pharmaceutics, our current student body is diverse and reflective of the national and global population. We actively seek students with our core values of integrity, caring, excellence, commitment, innovation, learning and professionalism.

We welcome you to get to know our department, please visit our website

Admission Requirements

Coursework and Research Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

PhD Requirements Timeline

Graduate Student Handbook

Online Application