This is an exciting time for training in the broad areas of life sciences (e.g., biomedical research, neuroscience) or public health sciences. At Penn State College of Medicine, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars have opportunities to work with dedicated mentors to address questions of critical importance in basic and translational research fields.
State of the art facilities afford the use of advanced methodologies to advance the frontiers of discovery and address clinical challenges in neurodegenerative or cardiovascular diseases, addiction, cancer, diabetes and other human diseases. The College of Medicine’s collaborative environment facilitates interactions between biomedical researchers, public health experts and clinicians to provide exceptional training to the next generation of leading scientists, educators, science communicators and pharmaceutical industry researchers.
It is a privilege to work with diverse trainees and a dedicated cadre of faculty and staff committed to providing an outstanding training experience to all students and postdoctoral scholars at Penn State College of Medicine.
Please explore our programs at Penn State College of Medicine!
Sincerely,
Daniela C. Zarnescu, PhD
Professor, Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Training
Penn State College of Medicine
Prepare for an academic career in the biological sciences through specialty training and teaching experience.
You’ll conduct original research under the supervision of a faculty member, culminating in the oral defense of a written thesis. You’ll also have the opportunity to gain teaching experience in the medical gross anatomy course and/or neuroanatomy course.
In this internationally recognized program, you’ll receive rigorous curricular and research training with a unique focus on human health and disease.
Students specialize in one of six tracks: biomedical sciences, biochemistry, genetics and genomics, cancer biology, cellular and integrative physiology, translational therapeutics, or virology and immunology. You’ll emerge with the skills needed to be a leader in biomedical research or another field such as business, education, or law
Technological advances in medicine have led to ever-growing datasets and constantly changing platforms and structures — and PhD-level biostatisticians are needed more than ever to help identify key scientific discoveries from these data.
At Penn State, you’ll have access to two newly established institutes that offer exciting opportunities to pursue research projects in biostatistics: the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Institute for Personalized Medicine.
The objectives of the PhD in Epidemiology program are to train students to master current quantitative methods, obtain broad knowledge of major human disease epidemiology, and become expert in a specific disease or health status topic.
The 28-credit (minimum) PhD in Epidemiology program is offered primarily as a full-time degree program, and can be completed in four years of full-time study.
Understanding the workings of the nervous system — how it functions and what goes wrong in a wide array of neurological and psychiatric diseases — is one of the greatest challenges in biomedical sciences.
In this program, you’ll work alongside renowned faculty in clinical and basic studies of a range of neurological diseases and in translational studies aimed at developing novel diagnostics and therapies.
Integrated clinical and research training prepares students for careers as clinicians and translational biomedical researchers.
Students in our MD/PhD Program can pursue graduate studies in anthropology; bioinformatics and genomics; biomedical sciences; engineering sciences and mechanics; molecular, cellular and integrated biosciences; or neuroscience.
The Penn State Clinical & Translational Science Institute has established a dual-title PhD program in Clinical and Translational Sciences that brings together a range of courses, from statistics and epidemiology to scientific communication and bioinformatics.
The coursework, combined with a required internship experience, faculty mentoring, and exposure to CTSI tools and resources, gives students the broad base of knowledge needed to launch a career in clinical and translational science. Students graduate with a PhD in a concentration of their choice with the dual title in Clinical & Translational Sciences.
The PhD degree program in health policy in administration is offered through the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State University Park and trains quantitative, multidisciplinary health service researchers.
The 53-credit PhD program consists of a core curriculum covering the organization and financing of health services and state-of-the-art statistical methods, as well as specialized training in either health economics, healthcare management and organizations, or population health and demography.
The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree is the terminal professional degree in Public Health and is designed to provide advanced public health education and training to prepare graduates for evidence-based practice and translational science leadership.
DrPH students must complete a minimum of 60 credits of graduate-level coursework beyond a master’s degree, including focused study in an advanced area such as evidence-based public health intervention, public health preparedness or social marketing and behavior, among many other topics.
