We are living in an age of rapid development where advances in the fields of chemistry, biology, computers, and engineering are changing the industrial landscape. Many important advances are happening at interfaces between the traditional academic disciplines and therefore pose significant challenges to universities. Biotechnology is cutting-edge science; the boundaries between chemistry, biology, physics, and other scientific fields are becoming increasingly less distinct. The future industrial landscape in Alabama (and the rest of the country) will include research, development and manufacturing of products such as proteins and nucleic acids that will be based wholly or in large part on biological processes. Universities must be ready to educate students who are not only well grounded in biology and chemistry, but are comfortable interfacing with various engineering disciplines.

We have defined a comprehensive, interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree program in Biotechnology Science and Engineering. The curriculum will provide broad training in the fundamentals of biotechnology and offer students advanced training in one of three specializations: Structural Biology, Biomolecular Sciences or Bioprocess Engineering. The principal core of instructors and research advisors are drawn from UAH’s departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Chemical and Materials Engineering. Additional participation by faculty from the departments of Computer Science and Mathematics is anticipated. The program will include significant involvement from local Biotechnology companies as well as scientists from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (http://www.msfc.nasa.gov) These industrial and government collaborations will provide several Ph.D. level principal investigators who will participate in the program.

The Biotechnology Science and Engineering Ph.D. degree program includes a rigorous core course requirement, industrial or government laboratory internships, laboratory rotations, the successful completion of a comprehensive exam, seminar attendance, the preparation of a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) style research proposal, oral presentations and defense of a dissertation describing original research. Some courses currently offered through existing graduate programs in the participating departments (M.S. in Biological Sciences, M.S. in Chemistry, M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science, M.S. in Chemical and Materials Engineering) were used to design the curriculum of this program. Many of the existing teaching and research laboratories of faculties from these programs will also be used in this program. It will be possible for students to obtain a MS in Biological Sciences, Chemistry or in Engineering as they work to complete the degree requirements for the Ph.D. in Biotechnology science and engineering.

It is the intent of the program to produce internationally competitive graduates who will make significant contributions to the field of Biotechnology.