Graduate Programs

Contemporary biology is built on understanding life at the molecular, cellular, organismal, population and community levels. The Tufts Department of Biology is dedicated to providing a unified and comprehensive view of biological processes for our students.

The Graduate Program is arranged into six concentrations, each with an advisor and a core of faculty researchers. Befitting the integrative nature of Biology, we encourage interdisciplinary research and collaborations between academic fields. Students may choose from a wide variety of research topics in each concentration, represented by the specialized interests of the faculty.

An important feature of our program is the opportunity for students in each area to interact with students and faculty in the other areas, which often leads to exciting new ideas for innovative cross-disciplinary research. The department consists of approximately thirty full-time faculty. There are typically about fifty-five graduate students in the program, about 70% of whom are PhD candidates. This low student-to-faculty ratio promotes close interaction between students and faculty who work as research collaborators. Our program requirements are flexible, so that graduate training can be individually tailored for each student.

Beginning in their second year, graduate students present an annual research seminar to update their research progress and to gain experience in formal presentation of their work. Training in communicating research is an important aspect of our training program. Students obtain support and feedback on their seminars, and we offer a course on Science Communication (Bio 262).