Overview
Students Receive Personalized Attention and a Strong Life Sciences Curriculum
at University of Wyoming in Laramie
The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public university in Laramie, Wyoming, providing graduate education, research, and outreach services. In addition to the main campus in Laramie, the university maintains nine educational outreach centers, and smaller Cooperative Extension Service Centers in each of the state's twenty-three counties. In addition to providing its students with a wide range of course options and world-class research facilities, UW provides the public services to Laramie that can only be offered by a major university.
One result of this relationship is that University of Wyoming gives students the personal attention and supportive community that comes from a small college. Deep in the high plains and rugged mountains of southeastern Wyoming, UW students benefit from an intimate scholarly community.
The Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular life sciences gives students a thorough grounding in the foundations of biochemistry and molecular biology. A strong core curriculum focuses on original scientific research, supported by courses to help students attain proficiency in the field. Students have the flexibility to take classes that focus on their own particular interests, and generally finish the program within 5 years. In addition to course work and research, students also take turns serving as teachers in order to gain experience as scientific mentors and instructors.
Students in Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences (MCLS) at UW are expected to interact with the scientific community. In this way they both benefit from the knowledge of others and share their own knowledge with the community at large. Students engage with the community by attending weekly seminars featuring outside speakers, as well as participating in local, regional, national, and international meetings.
Students also are expected to give regular public presentations of the results of their scientific research, learning the skills and self-confidence necessary to present research in a public setting. The main areas of faculty research include: cell biology and signaling, genetics and development, microbiology and infectious disease, structural biology, and biophysics. All MCLS students receive a full tuition waiver, student health benefits, and a living-wage stipend for the duration of their graduate studies.
The Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences Program Explores Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a Research Focus
Wyoming's MCLS program is an interdisciplinary program that gives students a broad range of knowledge among various scientific topics, while still instructing students with a proficiency in foundational disciplines such as biochemistry and molecular biology. Students connect concepts gained from their laboratories, seminars, and other classes, customizing their program to meet their own specialized interests and needs.
MCLS students study a wide range of research topics in biochemistry and molecular biology, including biotechnology, bioengineering, biomaterials, pharmacology, cell biology and signaling, genetics and development, genomics, proteomics, computational biology, microbiology, infectious diseases, structural biology, and biophysics.
In addition to their core courses, MCLS students choose electives from diverse course offerings such as genomics, biophysics, microbial physiology and metabolism, cell and developmental genetics, mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry, biomedical engineering, mammalian endocrinology, cell culture and virology, introduction to bioinformatics, protein structure and function, microbial genetics, computational biology, and plant physiology.
MCLS students combine these courses with an intensive focus on original laboratory research in collaboration with faculty members. Faculty laboratories with various specialties are available for student rotations, allowing students to sample diverse research settings, while learning universally valuable techniques in the molecular and cellular life sciences. Students gain information from the scientific community through weekly seminars and meetings, both locally and internationally. In addition to a modest teaching requirement, the bulk of the work MCLS students must undertake is scholarly research, the results of which they are expected to present in public formats. Most students complete the Ph.D. program in roughly five years.
The University of Wyoming Gives Students a Supportive Interdisciplinary Research Community in the Rocky Mountain Region
University of Wyoming's Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular life sciences provides students with a supportive university community and a friendly research atmosphere. The residential campus in Laramie is safe and friendly. It is a healthy place to live and study. The location affords students with the opportunity to experience a wide variety of outdoor recreation activities that take advantage of all Wyoming has to offer. Whether fishing, biking, and hiking near campus, or taking a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to climb, camp, hunt, or even ski, students at UW enjoy abundant natural benefits in some of the most beautiful regions of the Rocky Mountains.
Laramie is also within a one- to two-hour drive of some of Colorado's vibrant front-range cities, including Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins. Students at UW get to experience the American West by enjoying the great outdoors, while still also enjoying the comforts of a small college town.
UW's Laramie campus is modernizing the main Classroom Building with wireless Internet access, flexible computer projection systems, videoconferencing, more-comfortable seating, and lounge and food-service facilities.
