phd neuroscience research

Welcome to Stanford Neurosciences

The Stanford Neurosciences Interdepartmental Program (IDP) offers interdisciplinary training leading to a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. The primary goal of the program is to train students to become leaders in neuroscience research, education and outreach. Graduates of the program will be innovators, investigators, and teachers whose programs and pursuits are founded on research. The signature feature of the Stanford Neurosciences IDP is the combination of outstanding faculty researchers and exceedingly bright, energetic students in a community that shares a firm and longstanding commitment to understanding the nervous system at all its levels of function.

Program News

Admissions Information Session

Join us virtually to learn more about the Stanford Neurosciences PhD program and the admissions process.

Monday, October 2, 2023

11:00 am - 12:00 pm PST

Registration:  https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pD6dbNZZTpyFF8mlFAxNYQ

Thank You, 2022-23 Student Reps and Committee Members!

2022-23 was a busy and engaging year in the program. Thank you to the Student Reps and Committee Members who led the way in bringing the community together!

Krishna Shenoy, engineer who reimagined how the brain makes the body move, dies at 54

Shenoy was a pioneer of neuroprosthetics, a field that paired chips implanted in the brain with algorithms able to decipher the chatter between neurons, allowing people with paralysis to control computers and mechanical limbs with their thoughts. Read more

Virtual Information Session - Monday, October 3, 2022

Virtual Information Session - Monday, October 4, 2021

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Tirin Moore wins 2021 Pradel Research Award

Dr. Shah elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg elected to National Academy of Medicine

Incorporating Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression Training for our incoming class

Thomas R. Clandinin elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Kevin Guttenplan recognized by Biosciences Excellence in Teaching Award

Karl Deisseroth wins 2020 Heineken Prize for Medicine 

Daniel Cardozo Pinto wins Gilliam Prize 

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne donates Gruber Neuroscience Prize money to support Neuro grads who are under-represented 

Neuroscience, PhD

School of medicine.

The Department of Neuroscience offers an interdisciplinary program designed to train doctoral students for independent research and teaching in neuroscience. It is the goal of the program to ensure that candidates for the Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. degrees obtain a background covering molecular, cellular, systems, and cognitive approaches to neuroscience, as well as receive training that brings them to the forefront of research in their particular area of interest. A series of core courses in neuroscience, along with advanced electives, seminar series, laboratory rotations, and original independent dissertation research, form the Neuroscience Graduate Training Program.

Students enter the program from different backgrounds and the laboratories in which they elect to work cover different disciplines; therefore, the program is tailored to fit the needs of individual students. The academic year at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is divided into four quarters plus a summer semester. Courses are designed so that students have ample time to become involved in laboratory rotations. These laboratory rotations expose the student to a variety of current research techniques in neuroscience and provide an opportunity for the student to select a laboratory in which to conduct dissertation research. Scheduling of the three rotations is adjusted to make the most convenient schedule for each student. The rotations are usually completed by the end of the first full year in the program. Most students begin their thesis research at the beginning of their second year.

For more information, please visit The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience webpage: http://neuroscience.jhu.edu.

Financial Aid

The program provides tuition remission plus a stipend at or above the National Institutes of Health Predoctoral level for all students. All entering and first-year students are encouraged to apply for individual fellowships such as those sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Vivien Thomas PhD Scholars at JHU The  Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative (VTSI)  is a new endowed fellowship program at Johns Hopkins for PhD students in STEM fields. It provides full tuition, stipend, and benefits while also providing targeted mentoring, networking, community, and professional development opportunities. Students who have attended a historically black college and university ( HBCU ) or other minority serving institution (MSI) for undergraduate study are eligible to apply. More information about the VTSI program is available at this link:  https://provost.jhu.edu/about/vivien-thomas-scholars-initiative/ . To be considered for the VTSI, all application and supplementary materials must be received by  December 1st .

Admission Requirements

We use a holistic approach to evaluating applicants and look forward to reading your application. We are most enthusiastic about applicants who have taken full advantage of the opportunities available at their undergraduate institution and through other summer or postbac experiences. Our class size is typically ~18 students per year.

Applicants are expected to have received a B.S. or B.A. prior to enrolling in the graduate program. Laboratory research experience prior to enrollment is also desirable. If you have research experience, please describe your research in your Statement of Interest and Career Objectives and indicate the number of months engaged in full-time and part-time research on your CV. Students who do well in our program typically have a strong academic foundation in areas of biological or physical sciences. Some of the courses that prepare students well include general biology, neuroscience, mathematics through calculus, general physics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, statistics, engineering, or computer science.

NOTE: The Neuroscience Program DOES NOT require GRE scores. 

Program Requirements

A year-long core course provides an integrated overview of molecular and cellular neuroscience, neuroanatomy and systems, and cognitive neuroscience. This course is aimed at providing Neuroscience graduate students with a foundation for posing meaningful questions in their area of interest.  During the first two years, students are required to take 6 graduate level core courses that provide rigorous training in principles of neuroscience research. In addition, students in the first year attend research symposia and complete lab rotations to introduce them to research. Students in the program are also required to participate in core program activities such as seminars, journal clubs, a quantitative analysis boot camp, career development courses and various program events. In addition, each student selects advanced electives offered by members of the Neuroscience Training Program or other departments at the Medical School.

Seminar Program

The Neuroscience Training Program conducts several seminar series to ensure that students are exposed to recent work by researchers from across the country and the world as well as by Hopkins faculty and fellows. Graduate trainees participate actively in these series throughout their training, including inviting and hosting three speakers each year. A weekly lecture is given by an outstanding researcher in some field of neuroscience. Seminars are selected so that an overall balance of subject matter is covered yearly. Students are given an opportunity to meet with each speaker for questions and discussion. Weekly lunchtime talks are presented on current literature by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Since an ability to communicate scientific work clearly is essential, graduate students receive close guidance in preparing and evaluating their journal club presentations. Once a month, the faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students from one laboratory present and discuss the ongoing research in that laboratory. This provides an informal setting to discuss research being conducted in the laboratories of the Neuroscience Training Program and gives advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows a forum for presenting their work.

Requirements for the PhD Degree

A minimum residency of two academic years is required. During the course of graduate study, the student must successfully complete the required course requirements. An oral examination, conducted as prescribed by the Doctor of Philosophy Board, must be completed by the end of the second year. The student must then conduct original research and describe this research in a written thesis dissertation, which must be approved by the students Thesis Committee and the Doctor of Philosophy Board.

Training Facilities

The Training Program is centered in the Department of Neuroscience. The Training Program utilizes laboratory facilities located in the Department of Neuroscience plus several other basic and clinical departments closely associated with the Neuroscience Department. All of these laboratories are within a short distance of each other. Modern state of the art facilities for research in molecular biology, neurophysiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, cell biology, and morphology are available. The Mind/Brain Institute, located on the Homewood Campus of the University, is a group of laboratories devoted to the investigation of the neural mechanisms of higher mental function and particularly to the mechanisms of perception. All of the disciplines required to address these questions are represented in the Institute. These include neurophysiology, psychology, theoretical neurobiology, neuroanatomy, and cognitive science. All of the faculty in the Mind/Brain Institute are members of the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Combined M.D./Ph.D. Program

A subset of the current predoctoral trainees in the Neuroscience Program are candidates for both Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. Applications for admission to the combined program are considered by the M.D./Ph.D. Committee of the School of Medicine. Application forms for the School of Medicine contain a section requesting information relevant to graduate study. Applicants interested in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program should complete this section also, and indicate specifically their interest in the “Neuroscience Training Program”. If application to the combined M.D./Ph.D. program proves unsuccessful and the applicant wishes to be considered for graduate studies, they must notify the Admissions Office of the Neuroscience Training Program by separate letter.

• Student/Faculty Portal
• Learning Hub (Brightspace)
• Continuous Professional Development

Neuroscience

Neuroscience track.

program completion rate

job placement rate

Guaranteed 5-year internal fellowship

includes full tuition, stipend and benefits

Advances in technology allow us to see and study the brain like never before, providing a panoramic view of the inner workings of the mind and how it works. By understanding the basis of learning, memory and other fundamental brain functions, researchers are at the cusp of a major paradigm shift in the way we treat, cure and even prevent nervous system disorders.

The Neuroscience Track within the Ph.D. Program at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Science brings together nearly 60 basic neuroscientists and clinician-scientists as faculty — each of whom have wide-ranging expertise and truly multidisciplinary research interests — to provide you with a unique educational experience.

Students in the Neuroscience track can freely choose from labs at the Mayo Clinic campuses in Jacksonville, Florida; Rochester, Minnesota; or Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. This provides unparalleled instruction from top neuroscientists in subjects as diverse as neurodegeneration, neuroregeneration, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, genetics, imaging, behavior, neuropathology, virology, pharmacology, stem cells and transplantation, deep brain stimulation, and clinical studies.

Ongoing research in this program includes:

• Alzheimer's disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Spinal cord injury and repair
• Neural regeneration
• Non-Alzheimer's disease dementias
• Neurogenetics
• Neuro-oncology
• Neuroengineering
• Neuroimaging
• Neuroinflammation

The Neuroscience Track places a significant emphasis on laboratory-based research training. Laboratory research is complemented with both core and track-specific courses, as well as advanced courses on current topics in neuroscience. These are taught in a tutorial format with small groups of faculty and students discussing cutting-edge research in areas such as neural development, neural aging, neurogenetics, addiction and electrophysiology.

In addition to regular coursework, you’re provided with institutional support for travel to advanced courses at such institutions as Cold Spring Harbor and the Marine Biology Lab. In your first year of the program, you’ll also have the opportunity to attend the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting (SfN).

• Introductory neuroscience and core curriculum courses
• Lab rotations
• Comprehensive written qualifying examination
• Critical thinking, presentation skills, and scientific writing courses
• Selection of thesis lab
• Oral qualifying exam to determine advancement to candidacy
• Completion of advanced neuroscience courses
• Formation of thesis advisory committee
• Laboratory research
• Works-in-progress presentation (annual)
• Thesis committee meetings (biannual)
• Elective courses in advanced neuroscience topics

Knowing the vast extent of research occurring across all three campuses, and the fact that I am now a contributing member of this community, is very exciting and gives me great pride. The impact that the investigators and their teams have had on the understanding and treatment of the world's most devastating diseases, is inspiring. The diversity of the Mayo research network removes limitations on the questions we can ask as scientists and the means to answer those questions.

Ben Rabichow Ph.D. student, Neuroscience Track

Neuroscience is a burgeoning field that not all institutions have the resources to pursue. Mayo Clinic has a stronger translational facility than you see at other research institutions, and there’s so much potential to be able to work firsthand with patient samples.

Francis Shue Ph.D. student, Neuroscience Track

My PhD training at Mayo Clinic will definitely benefit my long-term career goal of becoming a physician-scientist. The close collaborations between clinic and lab have taught me how to define specific questions from clinical observation and then design experiments to investigate and answer those questions. I have no doubt that I’ll be well prepared to conduct translational studies after the rigorous training at Mayo Clinic.

Lingxiao Wang Ph.D. student, Neuroscience Track

Recent thesis topics

• “Blood and Brain Metabolic Signatures of Depression, Schizophrenia, and Alcohol Use Disorder,” Daniel Lindberg, Ph.D. (Mentor: Doo-Sup Choi, Ph.D.)
• “Targeting the Thrombin Receptor to Enhance Lipid Production and Repair in the CNS,” Erin M. Triplet, Ph.D. (Mentor: Isobel A. Scarisbrick, Ph.D.)
• “Neural Basis of Chronic and Binge Alcohol Exposure and Impulsive Behaviors,” Phillip Starski, Ph.D. (Mentor: Doo-Sup Choi, Ph.D.)
• “Neuroplasticity of Respiratory Motor Control following Spinal Cord Injury," Sabhya Rana, Ph.D. (Mentors: Carlos Mantilla, M.D. Ph.D. and Gary C. Sieck, Ph.D.)
• “Microglial Responses to Damaged Myelin and the Consequences of Demyelination,” Miranda Standiford, Ph.D. (Mentor: Charles L. Howe, Ph.D.)
• “Pathobiology of Clusterin in Alzheimer's Disease,” Aleksandra Wojtas, Ph.D. (Mentor: John Fryer, Ph.D.)
• “Development and Application of Genome Engineering Tools to Investigate Rapid Stress Signaling in Vertebrates Using the Zebrafish Model,” Han Lee, Ph.D. (Mentor: Karl Clark, Ph.D.)
• “Investigating the Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on Functional and Effective Connectivity in Humans Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” William Gibson, Ph.D. (Mentor: Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D.)
• “The Role of miR-7 in Regulation of Energy Homeostasis,” Hyejin Yoon, Ph.D. (Mentor: Jungsu Kim, Ph.D.)
• “Model Systems of the C9ORF72 Hexanucleotide Repeat Expansion Mimic Disease Features of Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” Jeannie Chew, Ph.D. (Mentor: Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D.)
• “Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease in At-Risk Populations,” Aurelie N’Songo, Ph.D. (Mentor: Nilufer Taner, M.D., Ph.D.)
• “Engineering a Regeneration Permissive Environment Allowing for Recovery After Complete Spinal Cord Transection,” Jeffrey Hakim, Ph.D. (Mentor: Anthony Windebank, M.D.)
• “The Role of Cannabinoid Signaling in Zebrafish Stress Responses,” Randall Krug III, Ph.D. (Mentor: Karl Clark, Ph.D.)
• “Preclinical and Clinical Implications of Adenosine and Glutamate Signaling in Alcohol Use Disorder,” David Hinton, Ph.D. (Mentor: Doo-Sup Choi, Ph.D.)
• “Synergy and Convergence of Pathways Controlling Axon Outgrowth and Neural Regeneration in the Spinal Cord,” Lucas Calstrom, Ph.D. (Mentor: John Henley, Ph.D., M.S.)
• “Astrocytic Glutamate Dysregulation in Neuron-Glia Interactions in Alcoholism and Psychiatric Disorders,” Jennifer Ayers-Ringler, Ph.D. (Mentor: Doo-Sup Choi, Ph.D.)
• “ The Neuropathology of Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with a C9ORF72 Hexanucleotide Repeat,” Kevin Bieniek, Ph.D. (Mentor: Dennis Dickson, M.D.)
• “ Investigation of Neuropathological Identified Cerebral Microinfarcts and their Effects on Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” Mekala Raman, Ph.D. (Mentor: Kejal Kantarci, M.D.)

Your future

The Neuroscience Track has graduated more than 100 students, all of whom have gone on to successful careers in diverse areas such as academia, the pharmaceutical industry, scientific publishing and intellectual property. Our students and faculty publish at the highest levels and our scientific endeavors have made — and continue to make — a very real impact at the bench and in the clinic.

Meet the director

Welcome to neuroscience at Mayo Clinic, where we offer training for graduate students in a broad range of basic science, translational, and clinical laboratories conducting cutting-edge research with a focus on translating research findings into treatments for disorders of the nervous system.

The Neuroscience Track delivers a unique, interdisciplinary, educational experience with vibrant student populations at Mayo Clinic's campuses in Rochester, Minnesota; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Owen Ross, Ph.D. Neuroscience Track Director Associate Professor of Neuroscience Phone: 904-953-6280 Email:  [email protected] See research interests

Browse a list of Neuroscience Track faculty members

Neuroscience

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Neuroscience is an area of study within the Division of Medical Sciences, an administrative unit based at Harvard Medical School that coordinates biomedical PhD activities at the Longwood Medical Area. Students who study in neuroscience receive a PhD in neurobiology. Prospective students apply through the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS). In the online application, select  “Division of Medical Sciences” as your program choice and select "Neuroscience" in the area of study menu.

Neuroscience is one of the programs in the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences, which facilitates collaboration and cross-disciplinary research. Visit HILS for additional  application instructions .

This interdisciplinary program includes over 150 faculty members from several hospitals and campuses in the Boston area with a variety of backgrounds in all areas of neuroscience. You will receive a solid core foundation and will then be able to focus on the area that interests you most with specialized training.

You will have access to an impressive array of resources, including state-of-the-art labs, high-resolution microscopy facilities, animal cores, and an instrumentation core that can design custom behavioral chambers and other experimental apparatuses. You will have the opportunity to engage with the broader neuroscience community in several ways, including through the Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI), a cross-schools initiative among neuroscientists in the University and its affiliated hospitals.

Students are working on various projects such as studying how neural circuits generate behavior through the use of in vivo imaging to study neurons in awake, behaving animals; the development of the nervous system; the ways in which genes and molecules regulate neural function; and the electrical properties of neurons.

Graduates of the program have secured faculty positions at institutions such as Stanford University, Holy Cross University, Rutgers University, and Harvard University. Others have established careers with leading organizations such as Biogen, Google, and McKinsey & Company. 

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Not Accepted GRE Subject: Not Accepted iBT TOEFL minimum score: 100 IELTS minimum score: 7

See list of Neuroscience faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

Neuroscience

Undergraduate Program

Neuroscience, the study of the nervous system, is a field that investigates the biological mechanisms that underlie behavior and how brains process information. The study of neuroscience provides both a broad scientific training and a deep understanding of the biology of the nervous system. Given the diversity of interests in this field, the only prerequisite for students entering this concentration is an intense curiosity about the brain.

The Program in Neuroscience is an inter-departmental Ph.D. program dedicated to training Ph.D.s in neuroscience. The program provides students with the instruction, research experience, and mentoring they need to become leaders in research and education. The program offers students options for thesis research with neuroscientists in departments throughout the University, including in labs based on the Cambridge campus and at Harvard-affiliated hospitals. The enormous number and diversity of affiliated labs means that students have a wide range of options in choosing research experiences.

Graduate Program in Neuroscience

About the program.

The Graduate Program in Neuroscience (GPN) at the University of Washington (UW) is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program with a continuously growing faculty with appointments in over 35 different academic departments and five partner institutes. Our program’s goal is to provide broad accessible training in neuroscience to our students, capitalizing on the diverse set of research interests of our faculty.  The faculty members deliver outstanding graduate training in all areas of modern neuroscience. The study of neuroscience is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of human endeavor.

The GPN acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. It is in this land where we work, teach, and learn.   Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are core values for the GPN at UW. These values guide our daily actions and are central to our educational mission.   We believe that equity and inclusion are basic human rights, and we must make deliberate, visible, and measurable efforts to uphold these principles to promote diversity.   We acknowledge the barriers of institutional and systemic racism and the obstacles that biases create. We are committed to deconstruct them via the implementation of anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive policies.   We recognize and encourage individual differences and backgrounds that enrich our community. With this in mind, we strive to engage those who have been historically excluded and exploited. We aim to cultivate an inclusive and collegial environment in which we all can thrive.    We also recognize the role played by the enslavement of Black and Indigenous people as well as immigrants in the building and shaping of our country.    The scientific endeavor is deeply anchored in, and benefits from, the ocean of individual perspectives and cultures that converge in a community space of respect and collaboration to advance human knowledge. Our goal as a program is to be that space.  

The GPN has faculty in the School of Medicine, College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering, and School of Public Health. Our faculty (and their labs) are located in the UW Medical Center, the Health Sciences, Upper Campus, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Harborview Medical Center (HMC), Seattle Children’s Research Institute, South Lake Union site of UW Medicine, the Regional VA Hospital/Med Center, and the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Our current students span most of those sites.  Our students perform cutting-edge research at a leading research university, in one of the most famously livable American cities.

The goal of the GPN is to provide broad training in neuroscience. The diversity of our faculty’s research interests allows us to provide interdisciplinary training drawing from a variety of topics, techniques and perspectives, including neuroanatomy, biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, biophysics, pharmacology, in vivo brain imaging (e.g., fMRI, M-EEG), computational modeling and behavior. A graduate of our program will be well versed in the neurosciences, prepared to conduct independent research, and equipped to pursue a variety of career paths.

What does it mean that we are a ‘Program’ and not a ‘department’? It means that we draw faculty from departments across campus and from affiliated institutes across Seattle to train our students. Students in our program are often considered to be de facto members of the department in which their faculty mentors have a primary appointment, but their diplomas show that their PhD degree is in Neuroscience. Our faculty and students are bound together by a common commitment to graduate education in Neuroscience, and we all benefit from the synergy of our diverse approaches to understanding the brain.

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Berkeley Neuroscience

Images left to right:  Christine Liu (PhD 2021) in the lab,   Christiane Voufo (PhD 2022) as the graduate student speaker at the Spring 2023 commencement ceremony, current Neuroscience PhD students in Tahoe during the 2023 UC Berkeley Neuroscience Research Conference, and Karina Bistrong (current Neuroscience PhD student) with poster presentation. Images provided by Christine Liu, GradImages, Frédéric Theunissen, and the Feller lab, respectively.

Prospective Students

Current students, program activities, gsi hiring information, student services & advising.

The Neuroscience Department will offer PhD training through the Neuroscience PhD Program , which will be run jointly by the department and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) .  This program has existed since 2000, run by HWNI, and has graduated > 150 students with a PhD in Neuroscience.  When the department launches, the existing HWNI Neuroscience PhD Program will be adopted and jointly administered by the department and HWNI. This will be a seamless transition for current students, who will not experience any changes to program curriculum or requirements. Over the next few years, we plan to make updates to the course of study, so that the program provides the best possible training, and matches the scope of both the Neuroscience Department and HWNI.  Students who enter the program will be able to choose thesis study with Neuroscience Department faculty members or with training faculty within the broader set of HWNI faculty.  Please see the full list of eligible faculty here .

PhD Program

The Neuroscience PhD Program at UC Berkeley offers intensive training in neuroscience research through a combination of coursework, research training, mentoring, and professional development. More than 60  program faculty (link is external)  from the Neuroscience Department and other allied departments provide broad expertise from molecular and cellular neuroscience to systems and computational neuroscience, to human cognitive neuroscience.

A unique feature of the neuroscience training at Berkeley is the highly multidisciplinary research environment. For instance, neuroscientists work side-by-side in the lab with engineers and roboticists to study motor control, with bioengineers to grow stem cells for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, and with chemists to develop new reagents for optical monitoring and control of neural activity. Neuroscience PhD Program students are trained at these intersections between fields and help drive scientific and technological advances.

The Neuroscience PhD Program trains a select group of students (about 10-12 entering students per year) in an intellectually stimulating and supportive environment. Since its official launch in 2000, the program has trained more than 150 students. Our applicants have outstanding undergraduate records in both research and scholarship from diverse academic disciplines, including biology, chemistry, psychology, physics, engineering, and computer science. We carefully select students with the expectation that, given strong graduate training, they will develop into tomorrow’s leaders in the field of neuroscience. We welcome you to apply to our program.

Please see the Neuroscience Department page:  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion .

Annual Message from Our PhD Program Director

"I am delighted to be the new director of our graduate program. I have inherited a program that I am proud to tell everyone is the best run graduate program on campus..."  Read More

Neuroscience PhD Program

UC Berkeley | 444 Li Ka Shing, MC#3370 | Berkeley, CA 94720-3370 | [email protected]

Neuroscience Program

Main navigation.

What makes the University of Utah Neuroscience Ph.D. Program unique?

The primary goal of the Neuroscience Program at Utah is to develop well-rounded scientists who are passionate about science and will become the next generation of leaders in our society. 

The Neuroscience PhD Program at the University of Utah offers rigorous training through a combination of coursework, research training, mentoring, and professional development. More than 80 program faculty from 26 participating departments provide broad expertise from molecular and cellular neuroscience, to systems and cognitive neuroscience. 

Students receive hands-on training and mentorship within a world-class research environment, collegial and collaborative mentorship and a vibrant research community. They have the unique opportunity to develop professionally through a variety of student leadership roles, such as organizing the Annual Snowbird Neuroscience Symposium and Neuroscience Program Speaker Series.

Send your questions and inquiries about the Neuroscience PhD Program to our Program Manager at  [email protected]  

APPLICATION

Neuroscience Program brochure

U. of utah indigenous land acknowledgement statement.

The University of Utah has both historical and contemporary relationships with Indigenous peoples. Given that the Salt Lake Valley has always been a gathering place for Indigenous peoples, we acknowledge that this land, which is named for the Ute Tribe, is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribes and is a crossroad for Indigenous peoples. The University of Utah recognizes the enduring relationships between many Indigenous peoples and their traditional homelands. We are grateful for the territory upon which we gather today; we respect Utah’s Indigenous peoples, the original stewards of this land; and we value the sovereign relationships that exist between tribal governments, state governments, and the federal government. Today, approximately 60,000 American Indian and Alaska Native peoples live in Utah. As a state institution, the University of Utah is committed to serving Native communities throughout Utah in partnership with Native Nations and our Urban Indian communities through research, education, and community outreach activities.

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Meet one of our students:

University of Utah Neuroscience Program: Success Starts Here

Send your questions and inquiries about the Neuroscience PhD Program to our Program Manager at [email protected]

News and Events

Program Outcomes

Symposiums  and  Lectures

Core curriculum, showcase: , student awards:.

Alicia Walker: NSF GRFP honorable mention

Kaelan Sullivan: NIH F99/K00 D-SPAN

Fei Chang: Utah Graduate Research Fellowship

NEURONEWS FALL 2021

Archived Newsletters

Other Utah Neuroscience Program Related Links

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PhD Program: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Leading fundamental research on the brain.

80+ trainees

70+ publications annually

The Neuroscience PhD Program site has moved

Thomas Papouin receives 2024 Dean’s Impact Award  (Links to an external site)

Applications open for Computational Neuroscience Next Generation Symposium  (Links to an external site)

Camillo Padoa-Schioppa and Andreas Burkhalter elected to AAAS  (Links to an external site)

New dedicated neuroscience research building.

Bringing together more than 100 research teams to help solve the brain’s mysteries

Publications

Introducing a new conceptual framework for astrocyte function.

In Nature Neuroscience, Thomas Papouin and colleagues describe the role of astrocytes in “contextual guidance.”

Department of Neuroscience Seminar: Maureen Barr, PhD (Rutgers University)

Department of neuroscience seminar: polina lishko, phd (washington university), department of neuroscience seminar: jennifer lippincott-schwartz, phd (hhmi janelia research campus), advancing neuroscience seminar: tychele turner, phd; yo-el ju, md; joshua rubin, md, phd, join our team of dedicated faculty, motivated trainees and passionate staff members..

Exceptional training

Providing foundational training, grounded in anatomy, at all levels

• Exciting, supportive environment
• Award-winning instructors
• Diverse mentorship opportunities

Our city will surprise you

St. Louis is an affordable, family- and foodie-friendly city with amazing green spaces and incredible cultural activities.