Graduate Student Guide
DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY
Boston University School of Medicine
GUIDE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS 2008-2009
This short guide is intended to summarize the requirements for graduate study in the Department of Microbiology and to provide some helpful information. Official documents regarding academic policies and procedures, registration information, etc. are available in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences.
DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Dr. Gregory Viglianti is the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the Department of Microbiology. The preferable method of contacting Dr. Viglianti is through E-mail at (gviglian@bu.edu). In addition, he is usually in his office (R510) between 8:00-9:00 AM, but try to make an appointment first. He can also be reached by phone (617-638-7790) but this usually ends up in a game of telephone tag. Dr. Viglianti should be consulted for advice on and approval of courses, rotations, training options, dissertation advisors, research advisory committees, and just about all other academic matters in the Department. In addition, he will review each student’s performance and progress on a regular basis and reassess curricular and research options. Dr. Viglianti is available to students throughout their training in the Department should problems arise in meeting the particular requirements that a student has selected.
TRAINING PROGRAM OPTIONS
Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. Candidates: Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students enter the Department directly or through one of several training programs, including Host-Pathogen Interaction (HPI), Immunology (ITP), or Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB). While the course requirements may vary slightly among the various programs, all students are expected to develop a strong background in diverse areas of the biomedical sciences.
In addition to successfully completing prescribed course work, Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. candidates must also complete rotations, participate in seminars, pass a qualifying examination, and successfully defend a dissertation based on original laboratory research.
M.A. Candidates: Only the Microbiology and the Cell and Molecular Biology tracks are available to M.A. students. In addition to passing prescribed course work, M.A. candidates are required to complete an acceptable laboratory based Master’s thesis.
COURSE WORK
The curricula for students in the Department of Microbiology are designed to recognize each student’s interests, background and training.
Microbiology Curriculum – HPI, ITP, CMB
Please consult with the DGS for current requirements.
For graded course work, a minimum grade of B- is considered a passing grade by the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences. Division rules state that students who fail 8 or more credits will be terminated from the program. The Department of Microbiology requires that if a student gets a C+ or lower in any required course, s/he will be required to repeat the course(s); the original grade will be carried on the transcript. Credits in other failed courses must be made up with credits from the same or other courses.
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
At the end of each semester, the performance of each student is evaluated by the Student Advisory/Review Committee (SARC) in consultation with the various program directors. The criteria used to evaluate each student’s performance are based on, but are not limited to, coursework, rotations, seminars, committee meetings, and conduct. If a student chronically fails to meet these expectations appropriate action will be taken which could include the revocation of financial aid, ineligibility to participate in voluntary TA/proctoring activities, or withdrawal from the program.
Standards considered by SARC in their evaluation of a student’s performance and standing.
1) Expectations before qualifying exam include:
- maintain a B average (3.0) in courses
- no grade in courses below B-
- attend and participate in journal clubs
- attend seminars (Microbiology, Immunology, Responsible Conduct in Research)
- participate in seminar speaker-student lunches
- satisfactory completion of laboratory rotations (this is demonstrated by the timely submission of rotation reports that have been signed by the rotation advisor)
2) Expectations post qualifying exam include:
- continued satisfactory performance in dissertation research (as determined by the dissertation advisory committee)
- timely meetings of dissertation advisory committee
- attend and participate in Friday’s @ 4
- attend seminars (Microbiology, Immunology, Responsible Conduct in Research)
- participate in seminar speaker-student lunches
3) Conduct, including but not limited to the following.
- Students must adhere to rules of conduct as they are outlined by the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences in its documents “Academic Standards and Disciplinary Procedures” and “Code of Student Responsibilities.” Students must also adhere to the rules and policies of Boston University regarding sexual harassment. Copies of documents describing these rules and policies can be obtained through the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences.
TEACHING REQUIREMENTS
In order to provide students with some teaching experience, all students are expected to serve as a teaching assistant at least once in the Microbiology component of the Medical School MS220 Disease & Therapy course. The only T.A. opportunity for the 2008-09 academic year, consists of three 2-hour case based discussions. Students are renumerated for their T.A. activities.
SEMINARS
Seminars are an important component of training at all stages of a scientific career and all students are encouraged to attend seminars in a variety of disciplines. In addition, all students in the Microbiology Department are expected to attend and participate in Departmental seminars throughout their graduate career.
The Department of Microbiology and Division of Infectious Diseases host a weekly seminar series. This series includes both invited speakers from other institutions, BUMC faculty and post-docs, and Department of Microbiology graduate students and is held on MONDAYS, from 12:00-1:00 in the Microbiology Conference Room, L504. Check the Microbiology website at www.bumc.bu.edu/Microbiology for seminar announcements.
Each student is required to present at least one seminar per year and this requirement holds whether or not a student is actually registered for the Microbiology seminar course. In an effort to provide feedback to students on their seminars, students and faculty are invited to critique student seminars after each presentation.
All graduate student seminars (except for dissertation defense seminars) will be limited to 20 minutes each with an additional 5 minutes for questions. There are 2 graduate students scheduled for each seminar slot.
Beginning students will be paired together for “debate” presentations in the Spring semester. More information regarding the format of these presentations will be provided later in the semester.
More senior graduate students present research seminars during the Fall and Spring semesters. These seminars should be well organized and will normally include the following components: 1) a brief but inclusive background summary of the general topic of the student’s dissertation project; 2) a statement of the student’s research goals (i.e. what question(s) the student is trying to answer); 3) a summary of the student’s results to date and conclusions drawn by the student from his/her results; and 4) the experiments that the student intends to carry out.
Throughout the year, guest speakers are also scheduled for seminars and graduate students are expected to attend these seminars as well. In addition to the Microbiology/Infectious Diseases Seminar Series, the Immunology Training Program also has a weekly seminar series and students in the Immunology track are expected to attend these seminars. Following both the Microbiology and the Immunology guest speaker seminars, students may meet with the guest speakers over lunch to discuss research.
All graduate students are required to attend all seminars in the lecture series on the Responsible Conduct of Research presented by Boston University School of Medicine.
At the completion of a student’s graduate training and as an essential part of his/her Departmental and Divisional degree requirements, a dissertation seminar is required of all students. It will be the responsibility of the student and advisor to schedule this seminar at a time that will ensure maximum attendance by members of the Department and the Medical School community.
In addition, all students are strongly encouraged to attend additional seminars offered within the Boston University Medical School community. Our medical center is also fortunate to be in close proximity to other academic centers and seminar notices from these institutions will be posted on the bulletin board outside the Departmental office, L504D. Faculty will identify seminars that should be of particular interest to the student body.
FRIDAY’S @ 4
Two student lead journal clubs are available to Microbiology and Microbiology and Immunology students as part of the Friday’s @ 4 series. Announcements of Friday’s @ 4 are posted on the Microbiology (www.bumc.bu.edu/microbiology) and Immunology (www.bumc.bu.edu/immunology) websites and on the Graduate Student Bulletin Boards. Journal clubs are held on a rotating basis with Research in Progress talks and a “variable” topic week.
All (Microbiology, CMB, HPI, Immunology) first and second year graduate students in the Department of Microbiology are required to attend and participate in Friday’s @ 4. First and second year Immunology students in the Department of Microbiology are required to attend and participate in the Immunology journal club as well. Attendance and participation by more senior students is strongly encouraged.
GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
More detailed information will be distributed throughout the year as deadlines approach on the following graduate student awards.
Corwin Award: Awarded by the Department of Microbiology to a Microbiology pre-doctoral graduate student, engaged in a research project, in recognition of exemplary scholarly and/or scientific achievement, values of collegiality and scientific integrity. The award is named for Dr. Laurence Corwin who was a Microbiology faculty member for many years before his untimely death in 1983, and consists of a $1000 cash prize and a certificate. Eligible students are nominated by faculty.
Russek Award: Awarded to Ph.D. and/or M.D.Ph.D. students (usually 2 awards per basic science department, one first prize and one second prize) who have successfully completed their qualifying exam and are engaged in a research project. Students are nominated for this award which recognizes graduate student accomplishments and commitment to the pursuit of research in basic sciences. Awards are presented at the Henry I. Russek Student Achievement Day which is usually held in April and consists of poster sessions and oral presentations. The award is administered through the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences and is named for Dr. Henry I. Russek, a physician/scientist who made significant contributions to research and post-graduate education over a career of four decades,
Travel Awards: Two $250 travel awards are available to Microbiology graduate students through the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences each academic year. The Department of Microbiology currently supplements each award for a total of $1000 per award. For the academic year 2007-2008, the deadlines are October 17, 2008 and April 6, 2009. Approximately 1 month before each deadline, a reminder E-mail will be sent to Microbiology graduate students and their advisors.
LABORATORY ROTATIONS
All predoctoral students are required to complete laboratory rotations. The purpose of laboratory rotations is to help students choose an area of interest and identify a major advisor for their dissertation research. Students are normally required to rotate through at least 3 laboratories before committing themselves to a particular laboratory for their dissertation research. Students are strongly encouraged to begin their laboratory rotations during the first semester of their first year of graduate study. As a starting point in selecting laboratories in which to do rotations, the research interests of the training faculty of the HPI, Microbiology, and Immunology training programs should be reviewed (NB: CMB program students should have already completed their rotations by the time they enter the Department. ITP students are generally expected to rotate through the laboratories of ITP faculty.) These lists can be found on the Microbiology and Immunology websites. Dr. Viglianti should be consulted, as well. After identifying laboratories of interest for rotations, students should schedule appointments with individual faculty members to discuss specific research options. To provide students the opportunity to practice scientific writing and to provide documentation of completed rotations, students are required to submit a written summary of their rotations to Linda Parlee, L504D, within 2 weeks of completing each rotation. The summary should be succinct and include the goals, methods, results, and, as necessary, references. Graduate Student Rotation Summary Report forms can be e-mailed to students upon request to Linda Parlee, llparlee@bu.edu.
MAJOR ADVISORS
Once a student has identified a laboratory in which s/he wishes to pursue dissertation research, that selection must be immediately communicated to Dr. Viglianti who needs to formally approve the selection. It is expected that students will select their major advisor during the first summer or third semester of graduate study.
QUALIFYING EXAMINATIONS
Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students in the Microbiology Department will routinely take their qualifying exams at the completion of their second year of graduate study. The format is currently under review.
RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEES
Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students should assemble a Research Advisory Committee either prior to or shortly after completion of the qualifying exam procedure. This should be done in consultation with their advisor and the DGS (the DGS must approve the membership of the Research Advisory committee before potential members are contacted). The committee should reflect a balance of expertise needed to guide the student in his/her research project.
For students in the Microbiology/HPI track, this committee will consist of five (or more members). When the student’s advisor is a member of the Microbiology graduate faculty, the committee should consist of the advisor, two other members of the Microbiology graduate faculty, and two additional members with faculty appointments in the Division (at least one of whom should be from outside the Department). If the student’s advisor is not a member of the Microbiology graduate faculty, the committee should consist of the advisor, three members of the Microbiology graduate faculty and at least one other member with a faculty appointment in the Division (preferably from outside the Department). Committee members from outside the institution should hold graduate level faculty appointments at their home institutions and can receive special service faculty appointments in the Division for the duration of their service on a student’s committee. The DGS will appoint one of the five faculty members, not the student’s major advisor, to be Chairperson of the committee. The committee chair will be a member of the Microbiology graduate faculty.
Students in the Immunology track will also select an advisory committee. In this case, the committee will consist of five (or more) voting members, including the dissertation advisor. At least three members of the committee must be ITP faculty members, and at least two members must be on the graduate faculty of Microbiology. The chair (appointed by the DGS) must also be a member of the Microbiology graduate faculty.
Students in the Cell and Molecular Biology program will also select an advisory committee. The committee will consist of 5-6 members, including the research advisor, 1 Microbiology graduate faculty member, and 3 members of the CMB training faculty. At least 1 member of the committee must be from a department other than Microbiology. The DGS will appoint the chairperson of the committee.
RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETINGS
The Research Advisory Committee must meet with the student no later than the end of the Fall semester following the qualifying exam date. The committee must then reconvene at least once a year, and preferably, more often to discuss research progress with the student.
It is the student’s responsibility to schedule his/her committee meetings. The DGS and Linda Parlee should be notified by E-mail at (gviglian@bu.edu) and (llparlee@bu.edu), respectively of the date, time, and place of each meeting as soon as the meeting is set but no later than 2 weeks prior to the meeting. The DGS and Linda should also be notified of any changes in meetings. (NB: many students use the R504 Conference Room for their committee meetings. This room must be reserved through Kathy Furness at (kfurness@bu.edu) to avoid scheduling conflicts with other activities taking place in that room.
One week prior to a student’s first meeting with his/her Research Advisory Committee, the student must submit to Committee Members and the DGS, an outline of the proposed dissertation project. The first committee report should provide the committee members with the information necessary to understand the hypothesis to be tested and the rationale for the hypothesis. It should include a background and rationale section, a specific aims section, a preliminary results section, and a section describing the experimental approach that will be used to carry out the studies. This report should be no more than 5-10 pages in length. In addition, a limited number of well-selected figures or tables providing salient data should also be included. It is not necessary to include a copy of all the overheads or slides used in the Research-in-Progress seminar. Examples of acceptable proposal outlines are available from the DGS.
In general, it is best for students to have their subsequent committee meetings following their Departmental seminars, but since this is not always possible, it is acceptable to schedule each on a separate day. Also, it is inevitable that at some point there will be scheduling conflicts with committee members that will make it impossible for all committee members to agree on a meeting date. It is better to schedule a meeting in the absence of one committee member (not the advisor or committee chair) than to postpone committee meetings for months. At least three days prior to each subsequent committee meeting, each student should provide members of the committee and the DGS with a brief outline of the student’s research progress. The outline should include each of the specific aims and the progress that has been made to date in addressing those aims. It should also include the future studies that the student plans to carry out to address the aims. In essence, the outline should be a running compilation of the student’s dissertation research. The student should be sure to indicate how they have addressed issues or concerns raised at the previous meeting. This outline should be kept brief (no more than 1-2 pages). Experimental findings should be included separately as figures and/or tables.
In the event that there is a significant change in research directions, the student should supplement the report with a brief background and rationale section to explain the change in research direction.
At the conclusion of each committee meeting, the committee chair and the student will review the meeting. It will be the responsibility of the student to prepare a short report summarizing the meeting. The student will forward the summary to the committee chair for additional review, comments, time frame for the next committee meeting, and approval. The committee chair should email the final and approved summary to Linda Parlee (llparlee@bu.edu) who will distribute copies to the student, committee members, and the DGS.
DISSERTATION: PhD PROGRAM
As part of the Ph.D. requirements, a written dissertation describing the student’s research accomplishments must be submitted and defended. Before the student begins to write a formal dissertation document, both the major advisor and the Research Advisory Committee must agree that the student has completed a significant body of original research. Once the dissertation has been written, the student is required to present a formal departmental, CMB, or ITP seminar followed by an oral defense of the dissertation. Students should consult with the DGS at the beginning of the semester in which they plan to defend to schedule their seminar. A written dissertation that has been approved by the 1st reader must be delivered to the 2nd reader one month before the scheduled date of the oral defense. A revised dissertation that addresses the 2nd reader’s comments must be delivered to all committee members at least two weeks before the scheduled date of the oral defense. Failure to meet these deadlines will result in the delay of the oral defense. Exceptions may be granted but only with the full consent of the dissertation advisory committee and the DGS. Each student is required to provide the Department with a final copy of his/her dissertation before the Department will sign off on the necessary paperwork in order for the student to complete his/her degree requirements. The Department will have the dissertation reproduced and bound and provide copies for the student, the advisor, and the Departmental library.
THESIS: MA PROGRAM
Candidates in the Masters program are required to submit a laboratory research based thesis. The thesis must be approved by a first and second reader who will be selected in consultation with the DGS.
GRADUATION
Ph.D. degrees are awarded three time a year, January, May and September. M.A. degrees are awarded three times a year, January, May, and September. It is important that students consult the Graduation Calendar available in the Division of Graduate Medical School for the timelines for submitting various documents, scheduling of final oral examinations, etc. There are some very specific deadlines, which if missed could delay the final oral examination.
OTHER STUFF
Department of Microbiology: The Departmental Office (L504D) and the Library/Seminar Room (L504) are located on the fifth floor of the Instructional Building. Some faculty offices, laboratories, the prep room, and a general laboratory equipment room, are also located on L5. Additional faculty offices, laboratories, general equipment rooms, and a small conference/lunch room are located in contiguous space on R5.
Websites: The address for the Department’s website is www.bumc.bu.edu/microbiology. Seminar and journal club announcements are posted here. In addition, information on curricula, courses, faculty research interests, and departmental events can be found at this site. The Immunology Training Program has its own website at www.bumc.bu.edu/immunology.
E-mail: Please sign up for an E-mail account in the Computer Lab on L12 (Medical Library). You will need your I.D. to sign up. We communicate with our students primarily through E-mail – so Please check your E-mail daily.
Mailboxes: In addition to the mailboxes assigned to 1st year graduate students by the Division (please note- 1st year students will only have these mailboxes for the first year). Microbiology first year students also have mailboxes in the Departmental office. Please check on a regular basis.
Microbiology Library/Seminar Room (L504): This room is open to all members of the Department to read and study. It houses an excellent journal collection and people have worked very hard to keep it intact. To this end, it is a hard and fast rule that journals cannot be removed except to make copies at the Departmental copier. This room is also used for Departmental Seminars and for lunch at noon time. There is a small refrigerator and microwave available.
Microbiology Conference Room/Lunchroom (R504): There is a small conference room located in R504, which is used for lab meetings, student committee meetings, lunch, etc. There is a refrigerator and microwave available in this room as well. To reserve this room for Committee Meetings, please contact Kathy Furness, kfurness@bu.edu.
Graduate Student Bulletin Boards: Information of interest and relevance to graduate students is posted on the bulletin boards located across from the Departmental Library/Conference room on L5.
Computers: The Medical School Computer Lab is located in the library on L12. Computers are also located in the Student Lounge next to the Cafeteria in the L building basement.
Copying: Students who have not yet taken their qualifying exam (usually 1st and 2nd year students) have a quarterly copying allowance of 750 copies on the Departmental copier. The copier is located in room L508 and cannot be used without first inputting an access code. Please see Linda Parlee, L504, for more details.
Lockers: Lockers (with combination locks) are available on R5. 1st year students are assigned a locker. Students beyond their 1st year may also be assigned a locker subject to available. Please see Linda Parlee, L504, to sign up for one.
AND LAST, BUT BY NO MEANS LEAST
Graduate Student Representatives: Graduate students in the Department elect two students each academic year to represent them at Departmental faculty meeting and other University meetings as the need arises. Steven Hatch and Nathaniel Green are the student representatives for the academic year 2008-2009.
