{"id":7448,"date":"2025-12-22T12:38:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/webid2-test-lsweb\/?page_id=7448"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:41:05","slug":"phd-program","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/students\/graduate\/phd-program\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Biological Sciences offers Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs in biology with focuses in the areas of Microbiology, Cell and Molecular Biology and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior.\u00a0Prospective students are encouraged to visit faculty webpages in their area of interest<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Upon acceptance to the program, students will be notified of any curricular pre-requisites that must be completed as perceived by their advisor\/committee. Extra programmatic requirements (physics, organic chemistry and calculus) will be determined by the student\u2019s major professor. All basic requirements must be remedied by the end of the student\u2019s first year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate School Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of general Graduate School regulations and requirements for the doctoral degree that are described on the Graduate School website<\/a>. The student\u2019s program is governed by the rules in the Graduate School\u2019s Academic Policies & Procedures<\/a> issued the year in which the student enrolled in the graduate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Requirement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The doctoral degree is a research<\/strong> degree. The most important requirement is that a student must make an original, publishable contribution to their field of study. PhD students are required to have submitted or published at least one primary authored manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal prior to<\/u> graduation. PhD students are also required to present a Colloquium in the Department of Biological Sciences prior to graduation<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctoral Student Status<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Doctoral Student<\/strong>
    The Department considers students admitted to the doctoral program with a BS, BA or MS degree to be doctoral students. However, the Graduate School considers as doctoral students only those in the PhD program that already have a MS degree or those who have completed 24 credits of graduate work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Doctoral Candidate<\/strong>
    A doctoral candidate must complete the University residence, formal course, and language\/data analysis proficiency requirements and pass the entire PhD Preliminary Examination (see below).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n