Predoctoral trainees at Wistar are Ph.D. or combined M.D.-Ph.D. candidates admitted to any of UPenn’s Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) Programs (including Biochemistry, Biophysics and Chemical Biology, Cell and Molecular Biology, Genomics and Computational Biology, Immunology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology) or programs in other schools, like the College of Arts & Sciences (Biology and Chemistry) or School of Engineering and Applied Science (Biomedical Engineering) may pursue their thesis research at The Wistar Institute. The University of Pennsylvania oversees required course work as defined by the curriculum committee for each graduate group, and members of Wistar’s faculty serve as thesis advisors and contribute to teaching, recruitment, and other programmatic efforts as members of the graduate group.
Trainees obtain foundational knowledge through classes and their progress is monitored by their thesis advisor, selected Wistar and UPenn faculty serving on their thesis committees, and by Wistar’s Training Committee. At the appropriate time students obtain permission to write their dissertation. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D., the dissertation committee must approve the dissertation and an oral presentation and defense of the dissertation.
When all the requirements of the individual’s graduate group have been satisfied, the Ph.D. is granted by the University of Pennsylvania.
Kevin Alicea-Torres completed his thesis research at The Wistar Institute as a Ph.D. student enrolled in a UPenn Biomedical Graduate Studies program.