BIG Program Information

The Biophysics Interdepartmental Graduate Program is a unique, standalone interdisciplinary program. Currently it involves faculty members from several departments/schools in the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences, College of Biological Science, Ontario Agricultural College and Ontario Veterinary College. Much of the interdisciplinarity in the composition of our program faculty is reflected in the research work carried out by our students. In many cases our students are co-advised by faculty from two different departments and all of our students are guided by an interdepartmental advisory committee. Our MSc and PhD programs are primarily research programs with the main goal of writing a scientific thesis. Most of the research conducted by our students can be loosely grouped in the fields Biomechanical Biophysics, Computational Biophysics, Cellular Biophysics, Molecular Biophysics, Structural Biophysics.

In addition to being students in the Biophysics Interdepartmental Program, our graduate students are also graduate student members of their home department. This is the department to which their advisor belongs.

Since our MSc and PhD programs are primarily research degrees, the formal course requirement is minimal. MSc students must earn 1.5 credits, PhD students must earn 1.0 credits (PhD students who already obtained their MSc degree from our program are not required to take courses for credit.)

All BIG students will take the team taught course BIOP*6000 Concepts in Biophysics that covers a wide area of topics of the discipline at the research level. This is a very dynamic course with a content that changes from year to year. For the remaining credits students can take graduate courses offered by our program or by other programs on campus. The selection of courses will be made by the student and their advisory committee. Our students must also take a Biophysics seminar course (BIOP*6010 Biophysics Seminar).  PhD students will take this course yearly after passing the qualifying exam and Masters students will take this course once in their second year.

Please visit the Graduate Calendar of the Office of Graduate Studies for more details, and Biophysics Graduate Program for program specific information.