phd at northwestern university

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From admission to graduation, The Graduate School (TGS) supports graduate students throughout their experience, awarding doctoral and master’s degrees in more than seventy disciplines. We are a resource throughout your academic journey.

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A Stipend for the 21st Century

Support for parents, a smooth transition, connected to campus & city, ongoing inclusion, funding your studies.

Fellowships, grants, assistantship options, and more

TGS provides most doctoral students with a stipend and scholarship to pay tuition costs; they are supported for a minimum of five years. For master’s students, external grants and loans make graduate study accessible.

TGS Spotlight

TGS is home to more than 3,200 PhD and 1,400 Master’s students, from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. Get to know our diverse community.

José A. Madrid (he/him)

Eden Melles

Priyanka Dadha (she/her)

Valeria Chávez Roncal (she/her)

Linzy Pinkerton (she/her)

Iryna Boiko

Cerina Dubois (she/her)

Pilar Manzi (she/her)

Jalin Niamke Jackson (he/him)

Jonathan Schulman (he/him)

Catherine “Cat” Majors (she/her)

Logan Phillips (she/her)

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Happenings at TGS

Don't miss news, opportunities and announcements.

Spring Quarter 2024 TGS U-Pass Access and Transit Card Fee

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has made the TGS U-Pass program optional on a quarterly basis for the 2023–24 academic year. If you choose to  opt in , your U-Pass will be activated (or issued) for the Spring Quarter and a quarterly $125 U-Pass Transit Card Fee will be applied to your student account.

DGP Student Thesis Seminar - Sakshi Khurana - Daniel Foltz Lab

April 30, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM McGaw Pavilion, 240 E. Huron

Title of Presentation:  "Non-Canonical Functions of CENP-F in Chromosomal and Genomic Instability"   This is a hybrid ev...

Dissertation, PhD Final Exam and change of grade forms due to TGS...

May 3, All Day

Dissertation, PhD Final Exam and change of grade forms due to TGS for Spring PhD candidates

Last day to drop a FULL-TERM class for Spring. Any requests after...

Last day to drop a FULL-TERM class for Spring. Any requests after this date result in a W on the transcript and must go ...

Announcements

Minjung kim awarded 2024 paul & daisy soros fellowship for new americans.

30 individuals were selected out of over 2,300 applicants, who will each receive up to $90,000 toward their graduate education. Minjung is currently pursuing her PhD in the Department of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences under the mentorship of Professors Omar Farha and Dayne Swearer.

Apply to Attend the OBI Graduate Student Award Symposium

The O'Donnell Brain Institute (OBI) at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center invites you to apply for the inaugural OBI Graduate Student Award Symposium to be held Thursday, October 17 – Friday, October 18. Selected awardees will deliver invited talks at the symposium, engage with faculty and trainees, and learn firsthand about our vibrant neuroscience community.

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS AND DATA SCIENCE

Phd program, phd program overview.

The doctoral program in Statistics and Data Science is designed to provide students with comprehensive training in theory and methodology in statistics and data science, and their applications to problems in a wide range of fields. The program is flexible and may be arranged to reflect students' interests and career goals. Cross-disciplinary work is encouraged. The PhD program prepares students for careers as university teachers and researchers and as research statisticians or data scientists in industry, government and the non-profit sector.

Requirements

Students are required to fulfill the Department requirements in addition to those specified by The Graduate School (TGS).

From the Graduate School’s webpage outlining the general requirements for a PhD :

In order to receive a doctoral degree, students must:

• Complete all required coursework. .
• Gain admittance to candidacy.
• Submit a prospectus to be approved by a faculty committee.
• Present a dissertation with original research. Review the Dissertation Publication page for more information.
• Complete the necessary teaching requirement
• Submit necessary forms to file for graduation
• Complete degree requirements within the approved timeline

PhD degrees must be approved by the student's academic program. Consult with your program directly regarding specific degree requirements.

The Department requires that students in the Statistics and Data Science PhD program:

• Meet the department minimum residency requirement of 2 years
• STAT 344-0 Statistical Computing
• STAT 350-0 Regression Analysis
• STAT 353-0 Advanced Regression (new 2021-22)
• STAT 415-0 I ntroduction to Machine Learning
• STAT 420-1,2,3 Introduction to Statistical Theory and Methodology 1, 2, 3
• STAT 430-1, STAT 430-2, STAT 440 (new courses in 2022-23 on probability and stochastic processes for statistics students)
• STAT 457-0 Applied Bayesian Inference

Students generally complete the required coursework during their first two years in the PhD program. *note that required courses changed in the 2021-22 academic year, previous required courses can be found at the end of this page.

• Pass the Qualifying Exam. This comprehensive examination covers basic topics in statistics and is typically taken in fall quarter of the second year.

Pass the Prospectus presentation/examination and be admitted for PhD candidacy by the end of year 3 . The statistics department requires that students must complete their Prospectus (proposal of dissertation topic) before the end of year 3, which is earlier than The Graduate School deadline of the end of year 4. The prospectus must be approved by a faculty committee comprised of a committee chair and a minimum of 2 other faculty members. Students usually first find an adviser through independent studies who will then typically serve as the committee chair. When necessary, exceptions may be made upon the approval of the committee chair and the director of graduate studies, to extend the due date of the prospectus exam until the end of year 4.

• Successfully complete and defend a doctoral dissertation. After the prospectus is approved, students begin work on the doctoral dissertation, which must demonstrate an original contribution to a chosen area of specialization. A final examination (thesis defense) is given based on the dissertation. Students typically complete the PhD program in 5 years.
• Attend all seminars in the department and participate in other research activities . In addition to these academic requirements, students are expected to participate in other research activities and attend all department seminars every year they are in the program.

Optional MS degree en route to PhD

Students admitted to the Statistics and Data Science PhD program can obtain an optional MS (Master of Science) degree en route to their PhD. The MS degree requires 12 courses: STAT 350-0 Regression Analysis, STAT 353 Advanced Regression, STAT 420-1,2,3 Introduction to Statistical Theory and Methodology 1, 2, 3, STAT 415-0 I ntroduction to Machine Learning , and at least 6 more courses approved by the department of which two must be 400 level STAT elective courses, no more than 3 can be non-STAT courses. For the optional MS degree, students must also pass the qualifying exam offered at the beginning of the second year at the MS level.

*Prior to 2021-2022, the course requirements for the PhD were:

• STAT 351-0 Design and Analysis of Experiments
• STAT 425 Sampling Theory and Applications
• MATH 450-1,2 Probability 1, 2 or MATH 450-1 Probability 1 and IEMS 460-1,2 Stochastic Processes 1, 2
• Six additional 300/400 graduate-level Statistics courses, at least two must be 400 -level

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Academic Rigor, Real-World Relevance

When you study at the undergraduate level, you are introduced to a field and gradually become aware of its unexpected nuances and complexities. At the doctoral level, you acquire an intellectual framework that allows you to embrace and accommodate that complexity as you strive to make sense of the world. As you progress, your novel insights help others make sense of the world as well. When that occurs, you are contributing to knowledge. Doctoral study is rigorous and immersive—but it is rewarding.

In the Kellogg PhD program, you will master an academic discipline—economics, psychology, sociology, operations research, or data science—and apply that mastery to real world problems facing managers and policy makers. This discipline-based approach prepares you to challenge conventional wisdom with new ideas, models, and empirical findings that have enduring impact on businesses, organizations, and communities. After leaving Kellogg, you can look forward to a career leading and inspiring others through teaching and research.

• Kellogg’s distinguished faculty includes trailblazing scholars whose research has redefined the study of management and has set a standard for new ideas and innovation. Currently there are 139 tenure-track, research-based faculty, of whom 68 hold endowed chairs. The faculty’s commitment to scholarly inquiry is evidenced by the school’s many research centers, as well as by sustained scholarly output. Their work is published in peer-reviewed journals , and many Kellogg professors serve in editorial positions at leading research journals.  The Kellogg faculty is deeply committed to PhD education. Within the past five years, over 60 different faculty have served on at least 3 PhD dissertation committees, and a phenomenal 26 faculty have chaired at least 2 committees!
• Kellogg faculty carefully balance their dedication to research with their commitment to teaching and mentoring PhD students, recognizing that both activities contribute to the quality of the education our students receive. The richness of the curriculum within this collegial environment encourages close working relationships between students and faculty across disciplines. We believe that this approach helps magnify our students' insights and perspectives as they are exposed to new ideas, possible thesis topics, and avenues of research. Collaboration does not stop at the walls of academia. As a world-class business school, Kellogg also offers tremendous opportunities to connect to real businesses, government organizations, and NGOs, which can translate into ideas and data for research. And Kellogg will provide you with the resources you need for data acquisition, technical support, research labs, and field study, so that you can turn your research ideas into reality.

Study with the World’s Foremost Thinkers and Educators

Collaborative, supportive research environment, the kellogg difference.

PhD Studies in Life and Biomedical Sciences

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Research Clusters for IBiS and DGP Students

Biotechnology systems and synthetic biology, cancer biology, cell and molecular biology, chemical biology and drug discovery, developmental systems and stem cell biology, genetics and genomics, immunology and microbial sciences, reproductive science, structural biology and biophysics.

We welcome your interest in PhD studies in Life and Biomedical Sciences at Northwestern University (NU LaBS).  Our goal is to train scientists in an innovative, interdisciplinary environment while allowing them to grow into confident, independent researchers as they specialize and explore their own areas of interest in depth. We provide graduate students with the financial and academic resources they need in order to take full advantage of Northwestern’s internationally-renowned faculty, its exceptional research and academic culture, and its state-of-the-art facilities on multiple campuses in and around the vibrant city of Chicago.

First-year students can take advantage of the wealth of resources, faculty, research and the academic culture of the university’s two campuses and its affiliate medical centers, but they generally spend the majority of their time on either the Evanston or Chicago campus. The Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBiS)  program is housed within one of the world’s great liberal arts universities, and emphasizes mechanistic molecular biosciences, as well as the interface of biology with physics, chemistry and biomedical engineering. The Driskill Graduate Program (DGP) is housed in one of America’s leading medical schools and its affiliated hospitals, emphasizing basic and translational biomedical science. Though students will be in residence primarily on one campus, they enjoy ample opportunity to cross campuses and take advantage of resources program-wide. The program as a whole, linking faculty, post-docs and graduate students from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the McCormick School of Engineering, and the Feinberg School of Medicine truly offers science without boundaries.

PhD programming at Northwestern offers students unparalleled exposure to foundational and cutting-edge specialties in the life sciences, building on the rich history of biological research at Northwestern. These programs prepare students to succeed in the rapidly evolving life and biomedical sciences fields, in part by emphasizing collaborative interdisciplinary studies with an outstanding internationally recognized faculty using state-of-the-art technologies. After an interdisciplinary first year which exposes students to a broad array of biological, bioengineering, and translational bio-medical research, students identify a thesis laboratory and affiliate with a research cluster that provides more focused training in their area of specialization. Through journal and data clubs, symposia, and advanced coursework, the clusters provide forums for continued intellectual development throughout the PhD training. 

We welcome you to learn more about opportunities for PhD study in Biology at Northwestern.

Students interested in pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience, click here .

Driskill Graduate Program (DGP) 303 East Chicago Avenue Morton 1-670 Chicago, IL 60611-3008 Phone: 312- 503-1889 Fax: 312-908-5253 Website URL: DGP Email: [email protected]

Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBiS) 2205 Tech Drive Hogan 2-100 Evanston, IL 60208 Phone: 847-491-4301 Fax: 847-467-1380 Website URL: IBiS Email: [email protected]

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

• Prospective Ph.D.s

Prospective Ph.D. Information

Northwestern's Ph.D. program in Economics owes its international reputation to an outstanding faculty, a well-organized program of study, extensive student-faculty interaction, and an excellent record of recruiting, training, and placing talented graduate students.

In addition, the Department of Economics and the Finance Department in the Kellogg School of Management offer a joint full-time Ph.D. program in Financial Economics .  

Program details

Students generally complete the Ph.D. program in four to six years. Please note that the department does not admit students for a terminal MA degree. An MA degree is only available to Economics Ph.D. students who have successfully completed the first year of the doctoral program, and to students enrolled in other doctoral programs at Northwestern.

The Ph.D. program has approximately 120 students in residence and an average entering class of 25 each year.

The department actively supports the placement of Ph.D. graduates in positions at prestigious universities, government agencies and private corporations. See where past graduates have been placed.

Application details

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Our fields of study:

• Development Economics
• Econometrics
• Economic History
• Health Economics
• Financial Economics
• Industrial Organization
• Labor and Public Economics
• Macroeconomics
• Microeconomic Theory

Why Northwestern?

The department of economics at northwestern university is among the best in the world..

Located on a scenic lakefront campus in Evanston, Northwestern University offers the best features of small-town and large-city living. There is easy access by public transportation to the cultural, sporting and recreational opportunities in one of the world's greatest cities.

Find more reasons to choose Northwestern.

Doctorate in Learning Sciences

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• Learning Sciences
• PhD in Learning Sciences

About the Program

Northwestern University's Learning Sciences program was the first of its kind in the nation. The program was developed with the understanding that design, cognition and sociocultural contexts are core areas for approaching learning and teaching in formal and informal settings. The curriculum and research projects in the Learning Sciences program exemplify continued focus in these areas. 

The Learning Sciences doctoral degree program prepares graduates to advance the understanding and practice of teaching and learning. Research and course work emphasize instructional, technological, and social policy innovations and the design of effective learning and teaching environments. This program is intended for people with a wide variety of interests, including: 

• Research 
• Teaching and training 
• Software development 
• School administration 
• The study and reform of learning environments
• Attend an Information Session
• Apply to the Program

Sociocultural Contexts

Examining the social, organizational and cultural dynamics of learning and teaching situations, including classrooms, schools, school districts, museums, corporations and homes.

Constructing scientific models of the structures and processes of learning and teaching by which organized knowledge, skills and understanding are acquired.

Building environments for learning and teaching, incorporating multimedia, artificial intelligence, computer networks and innovative curriculum and classroom activity structures.

Curriculum Overview

Course work in the Learning Sciences doctoral program includes a core curriculum and electives.

View Curriculum

Our Students

Students prepare to be researchers, developers, and practitioners in schools, workplaces, and other settings.

“ The Learning Sciences program at Northwestern is one of the few programs that treat the science of learning as a field in and of itself; understanding the cognitive and sociocultural foundations of learning and designing learning environments that take advantage of these insights are the cornerstones of what it means to be at Northwestern.”

—Erica Rosenfeld Halverson  Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison ,  Learning Sciences PhD program, class of 2005

Learning Sciences at Northwestern.

Explore the breadth of academic courses offered in the curriculum.

Contact Learning Sciences

Phone Number  847-491-4329 

Email  [email protected] 

Physical Address  Walter Annenberg Hall   2120 Campus Drive   Evanston, IL 60208

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

Ph.d. graduate program.

The  Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences  is a small program within a large research university with opportunities for scholarship in many  research areas  that lead to a Ph.D. degree. These include geobiology (e.g. microbiology, paleolimnology), geophysics (e.g. mineral physics, seismology, tectonics), geochemistry (e.g. sedimentary chemistry, stable and radiogenic isotope chemistry, stratigraphy), and planetary science, to name a few. As a Northwestern graduate student you will join a disciplinarily diverse community. You will have the opportunity to explore various subdisciplines through your course and fieldwork, and through conducting research in the department's state-of-the-art  analytical,  computational, and observational facilities , including the  Integrated Labs for Earth and Planetary Sciences  (ILEPS). Due to the modest size of our department, you will have access to, and work with internationally renowned  faculty , including your dissertation advisor. You will also have opportunities to participate in interdisciplinary programs, such as  IDEAS  and live in a vibrant community in close proximity to  Chicago . To learn more about our program and the application process, please read through this web page using the links to the left and the menus at the top. We welcome your inquiries. Please contact directly any  faculty members  whose research activities are of interest to you, or write to either our Director of Graduate Admissions,  Prof. Yarrow Axford  or our Program Assistant at  [email protected] .

Clinical Psychology PhD Program

Founded on a scientist-practitioner model, the overall goal of the Clinical Psychology PhD Program is to graduate academic psychologists who are competent, ethical and productive in the science and practice of clinical psychology. Our program emphasizes the integration of science and clinical practice.

Directors' Message Student Admissions, Outcomes & Other Data Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice

How to Apply

Learn more about the criteria for applying to the program as well as tuition and financial aid.

Our curriculum is structured to maximize clinical, research and ethical training for students.

Meet Our Team

Meet our current students and their faculty mentors. Each student works closely with a faculty member throughout their tenure at Northwestern. Browse the Faculty Mentor list to learn more about their research projects and see who is currently recruiting new students.

Current Students    Faculty Mentors

JD-PhD Program

Northwestern's joint JD-PhD program  is a collaboration between The Graduate School and Northwestern Law. It's designed for applicants who are interested in academic careers examining research topics that are enriched by having both JD and PhD degrees.

Visit the JD-PhD Website

Questions about the PhD program? Find out more.

Read the FAQ

How to Contact Us

To contact the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology, please email us at [email protected] .

Please DO NOT call the number below as it will go to our clinic; it is reserved for patients. Please DO NOT call any other numbers that you may find within the Feinberg School of Medicine. We will only respond to emails that are sent to the following email address: [email protected] . Please DO NOT  contact via phone or email the MD Admissions Office; they are not involved in the admissions process for the PhD program in Clinical Psychology. 

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DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Phd program admissions, admissions information.

The only way to apply for admission to the Philosophy PhD program is by filling out an online application.  The application can be accessed via the following linked website from The Graduate School at Northwestern:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

The online application for matriculation in Fall 2024 is now available.  All application materials are submitted via the online application system, CollegeNet, at the above link.   Your application and all supplemental materials  must  be received by the application deadline of Friday, January 5, 2024.

Application Materials

The Department of Philosophy requires the following supplemental application materials :

• Transcripts  from each post-secondary institution attended. Students working toward a master's degree at another institution should submit transcripts of all undergraduate work as well as transcripts of all graduate work completed at the time of filing the application. The department accepts the uploading of unofficial transcripts when you apply. Once accepted into the program, The Graduate School will require the submission of official (bearing the registrar's signature and/or the institution's seal) transcripts.
• At least  three  letters of recommendation . The recommendation form is available as part of the online application and is sent directly to the letter writers through the online application system. Prior to requesting that your providers complete the recommendation online, be sure to check with them to ensure they have a personal email address and access to the internet.
• Academic Statement - This statement concerning your academic interests and goals should not exceed two single-spaced pages.
• Personal Statement - Please include in the personal statement a description of any particular challenges or hardships faced during your academic trajectory. The personal statement should not exceed one single-spaced page.
• Writing Sample -  10-20 pages, double-spaced.
• TOEFL Scores  are required for applicants who are not native English speakers, although this requirement will be waived for those who have completed four years as an undergraduate, or two years as an MA student, in an institution where all instruction is conducted in English. Official scores must be less than two years old and must come directly from the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The institutional code assigned to The Graduate School at Northwestern is 1565 . The minimum TOEFL score for admission is 577 for the paper-based test and 233 for the computer-based test. The minimum score required for the iBT TOEFL is 90. The Graduate School will accept the results of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) as a substitute for the TOEFL, with a floor of 7.0. For information regarding the internet-based TOEFL exam and an explanation of the exam, please consult http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/admission/requirements/test-scores/index.html .

The following supplemental materials are optional, but not required:

• A cluster statement expressing your interest in participating in an interdisciplinary graduate cluster. Please see Mellon Clusters in the Humanities and Qualitative Social Sciences: The Graduate School - Northwestern University for information about the themes and activities of the various clusters. 
• GRE Scores*  - Official scores must be less than five years old and must come directly from the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The institutional code assigned to The Graduate School at Northwestern is 1565 .

* The department provides a holistic review for each application.  For those applicants who choose to submit GRE scores, these count as simply one data point among many.  They are not used to filter out any applications.  The absence of GRE scores in an applicant's dossier has no negative impact; when GRE scores are not submitted, the applicant will be assessed entirely on the basis of the required materials.

If you have any questions about the graduate application process that cannot be answered by consulting the Frequently Asked Questions page, the Department of Philosophy website, or The Graduate School's Admissions website, please feel free to email the Philosophy Graduate Program Coordinator at:  [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

• Graduate Admissions
• PhD application

The Doctoral Program in English Literature

Applying to the doctoral program.

Look for Program Code E25PH when searching for the PhD program in the online application system

Application information FOR

Matriculation in fall 2025, application deadline: tba, all application materials are due by 11:59 pm (cst) on the day of the deadline.

When reviewing applications, we look for evidence of keen intellectual ability, skill in literary analysis, scholarly potential, and a strong sense of academic purpose. We do not emphasize any single factor, but pay close attention to written work and to applicants' competency in one or more foreign languages. We typically expect to receive between 200 and 300 applications for admission to the doctoral program, with a target class size of between 6 and 8 students.

Notification of the admissions committee's decisions will most likely occur in early February. Once our offers of admissions have been made, we will invite those prospective students to campus for a Visiting Weekend around the beginning of March. This is a chance for you to meet with faculty and current graduate students, discuss future projects, and hear about current doctoral work, tour the department and the campus, sit in on graduate seminars, and to look at some of the many advantages that Evanston and Chicago have to offer.

All supplemental application materials must be submitted through The Graduate School's application system. Please do  not  send, or have sent, paper copies of any documents. If you or your recommenders are having difficulty submitting any component of the application online, and the application system's online help is unable to resolve your problem, please contact the  Graduate Program Coordinator .  Never have any application materials sent directly to The Graduate School or their Office of Admission.

In all cases , our department's specifics regarding supplemental application materials supersede those listed on The Graduate School's website, as well as any listed in the application itself.  

Supplemental Application Materials

The English Department requires that the following documents be submitted as part of the online application for the PhD program (program code E25PH).  

• We cannot accept printouts of unofficial grade reports,
• Transcripts for non-degree courses are  not  needed,
• Transfer credits and courses taken as part of a study-abroad program will usually be included in your degree-awarding institution's transcript. There's no need to submit separate transcripts from those other institutions;
• Two letters of recommendation , though we strongly advise you to ask for three;
• An academic statement (1000 word max) answering the following questions: what are your academic interests, why do you wish to pursue graduate studies in our department, how has your academic and professional background prepared you for graduate study, and how will our program help you achieve your intellectual and professional goals? Please include mention of any research, training, or educational experiences you have that would be relevant to our program;
• A personal statement (500 word max)  addressing how , as a student in our graduate program, you could contribute to an intellectual community that prioritizes equity, inclusion, belonging, and cultural humility.  Your answer may draw upon past or present experiences, whether in academic work, extracurricular or community activities, or everyday life;
• It is not required, but feel free to submit an additional statement (250 word max) addressing concerns you may have with your application. If you feel that your academic credentials do not demonstrate your true capabilities, or if there are gaps in your academic career that you think it would  like to explain, this is the section in which to share that information;
• Please do not submit creative writing samples of any kind;
• Standard margins, Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced;
• You may submit more than one sample, so long as the total page count does not exceed 25
• To be considered official, the exam must have been taken no more than two years prior to the intended September of entry ,
• Because of the level of English fluency required of students in our program, we will only consider applications with a TOEFL score of at least 100, or IELTS score of at least 7,
• Rules governing exemptions from this requirement can be found in our  FAQ ;
• Additional details from Northwestern's Graduate School about the application (including further details on the TOEFL/IELTS requirement, transcript submission, application fees, etc...) can be found on The Graduate School's website .

DEPARTMENT OF NEUROBIOLOGY

Affiliated phd programs, ph.d. in neuroscience (nuin).

Northwestern University (NU) offers world-class advanced training in neuroscience via its Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) PhD program. NUIN is fundamentally a research-oriented PhD program, although students must satisfy a rigorous set of course requirements in addition to completing a thesis. Students also receive training in teaching and other professional skills important for all career paths. NUIN accepts applicants from diverse backgrounds and majors (including psychology, engineering, physics, computer science, and chemistry, as well as biology and neuroscience).

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (IBiS)

The Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBiS) Program at Northwestern University trains outstanding students to pursue innovative, interdisciplinary research in a broad spectrum of disciplines including cell and molecular biology, structural biology and biophysics, developmental and systems biology,  biochemistry, bioengineering and biotechnology, neurobiology, and nanotechnology. The program combines an interactive and collaborative research environment, outstanding faculty who are leaders in their fields, and a flexible, yet rigorous, curriculum,  to provide exceptional training and research opportunities. The emphasis on cutting-edge multidisciplinary technologies prepares IBiS students for success in the rapidly evolving life and biomedical sciences disciplines.

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Academics   /   Graduate Study Materials Science and Engineering (PhD)

The PhD program in materials science and engineering was the first in the world and is internationally renowned for the excellence of its graduates.

To pursue a broad range of research, we actively seek students with diverse backgrounds and undergraduate training, including physicists, chemists, and engineers from other disciplines.

Learn more about the department's research areas

Curriculum Apply now

Request More Information

Download a PDF program guide about your program of interest, and get in contact with our graduate admissions staff.

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Driving Innovations in Biostatistics with Denise Scholtens, PhD

“I'm continually surprised by new data types. I think that we will see the emergence of a whole new kind of technology that we probably can't even envision five years from now…When I think about where the field has come over the past 20 years, it's just phenomenal.”  —  Denise Scholtens, PhD  

• Director, Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center (NUDACC)  
• Chief of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine  
• Professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Biostatistics and of Neurological Surgery  
• Member of Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS)  
• Member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center  

Episode Notes 

Since arriving at Feinberg in 2004, Scholtens has played a central role in the dramatic expansion of biostatistics at the medical school. Now the Director of NUDACC, Scholtens brings her expertise and leadership to large-scale, multicenter studies that can lead to clinical and public health practice decision-making.    

• After discovering her love of statistics as a high school math teacher, Scholtens studied bioinformatics in a PhD program before arriving at Feinberg in 2004.  
• Feinberg’s commitment to biostatistics has grown substantially in recent decades. Scholtens was only one of five biostatisticians when she arrived. Now she is part of a division with almost 50 people.  
• She says being a good biostatistician requires curiosity about other people’s work, knowing what questions to ask and tenacity to understand subtitles of so much data.   
• At NUDACC, Scholtens and her colleagues specialize in large-scale, multicenter prospective studies and clinical trials that lead to clinical or public health practice decision-making. They operate at the executive level and oversee all aspects of the study design.  
• Currently, Scholtens is involved with the launch of a large study, along with The Ohio State University, that received a $14 million grant to look at the effectiveness of aspirin in the prevention of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.  
• Scholtens first started her work in data coordinating through the Hyperglycemia Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) study, which looked at 25,000 pregnant individuals. This led to a continued interest in fetal and maternal health.   
• When it comes to supportive working environments, Scholtens celebrates the culture at Feinberg, and especially her division in biostatistics, for being collaborative as well as genuinely supportive of each other’s projects. She attributes this to strong leadership which established a culture with these guiding principles.   

Additional Reading  

• Read more about the ASPIRIN trial and other projects taking place at NUDACC   
• Discover a study linking mothers’ obesity-related genes to babies’ birth weight, which Scholtens worked in through the HAPO study   
• Browse all of Scholtens recent publications 

Recorded on February 21, 2024.

Continuing Medical Education Credit

Physicians who listen to this podcast may claim continuing medical education credit after listening to an episode of this program..

Target Audience

Academic/Research, Multiple specialties

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Identify the research interests and initiatives of Feinberg faculty.
• Discuss new updates in clinical and translational research.

Accreditation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine designates this Enduring Material for a maximum of 0.50  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

American Board of Surgery Continuous Certification Program

Successful completion of this CME activity enables the learner to earn credit toward the CME requirement(s) of the American Board of Surgery’s Continuous Certification program. It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit learner completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABS credit.

All the relevant financial relationships for these individuals have been mitigated.

Disclosure Statement

Denise Scholtens, PhD, has nothing to disclose.  Course director, Robert Rosa, MD, has nothing to disclose. Planning committee member, Erin Spain, has nothing to disclose.  FSM’s CME Leadership, Review Committee, and Staff have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

Read the Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Erin Spain, MS: This is Breakthroughs, a podcast from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I'm Erin Spain, host of the show. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is home to a team of premier faculty and staff biostatisticians, who are the driving force of data analytic innovation and excellence here. Today, we are talking with Dr. Denise Scholtens, a leader in biostatistics at Northwestern, about the growing importance of the field, and how she leverages her skills to collaborate on several projects in Maternal and Fetal Health. She is the Director of the Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center, NUDACC, and Chief of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine, as well as Professor of Preventive Medicine and Neurological Surgery. Welcome to the show.  

[00:01:02] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Thank you so much.  

[00:01:02] Erin Spain, MS: So you have said in the past that you were drawn to this field of biostatistics because you're interested in both math and medicine, but not interested in becoming a clinician. Tell me about your path into the field and to Northwestern.  

[00:01:17] Denise Scholtens, PhD: You're right. I have always been interested in both math and medicine. I knew I did not want to be involved in clinical care. Originally, fresh out of college, I was a math major and I taught high school math for a couple of years. I really enjoyed that, loved the kids, loved the teaching parts of things. Interestingly enough, my department chair at the time assigned me to teach probability and statistics to high school seniors. I had never taken a statistics course before, so I was about a week ahead of them in our classes and found that I just really enjoyed the discipline. So as much as I loved teaching, I did decide to go ahead and invest in this particular new area that I had found and I really enjoyed. So I wanted to figure out how I could engage in the field of statistics. Decided to see, you know, exactly how studying statistics could be applied to medicine. At the time, Google was brand new. So I literally typed in the two words math and medicine to see what would come up. And the discipline of biostatistics is what Google generated. And so here I am, I applied to grad school and it's been a great fit for me.  

[00:02:23] Erin Spain, MS: Oh, that's fantastic. So you went on to get a PhD, and then you came to Northwestern in 2004. And so tell me a little bit about the field then and how it's changed so dramatically since.  

[00:02:36] Denise Scholtens, PhD: So yes, I started here at Northwestern in 2004, just a few months after I had defended my thesis. At the time there was really an emerging field of study called bioinformatics. So I wrote my thesis in the space of genomics data analysis with what at the time was a brand new technology, microarrays. This was the first way we could measure gene transcription at a high throughput level. So I did my thesis work in that space. I studied at an institution with a lot of strengths and very classical statistics. So things that we think of in biostatistics like clinical trial design, observational study analysis, things like that. So I had really classic biostatistics training and then complimented that with sort of these emerging methods with these high dimensional data types. So I came to Northwestern here and I sort of felt like I lived in two worlds. I had sort of classic biostat clinical trials, which were certainly, you know, happening here. And, that work was thriving here at Northwestern, but I had this kind of new skillset, and I just didn't quite know how to bring the two together. That was obviously a long time ago, 20 years ago. Now we think of personalized medicine and genomic indicators for treatment and, you know, there's a whole variety of omics data variations on the theme that are closely integrated with clinical and population level health research. So there's no longer any confusion for me about how those two things come together. You know, they're two disciplines that very nicely complement each other. But yeah, I think that does speak to how the field has changed, you know, these sort of classic biostatistics methods are really nicely blended with a lot of high dimensional data types. And it's been fun to be a part of that.  

[00:04:17] Erin Spain, MS: There were only a handful of folks like you at Northwestern at the time. Tell me about now and the demand for folks with your skill set.  

[00:04:26] Denise Scholtens, PhD: When I came to Northwestern, I was one of a very small handful of biostatistics faculty. There were five of us. We were not even called a division of biostatistics. We were just here as the Department of Preventive Medicine. And a lot of the work we did was really very tightly integrated with the epidemiologists here in our department and we still do a lot of that for sure. There was also some work going on with the Cancer Center here at Northwestern. But yeah, a pretty small group of us, who has sort of a selected set of collaborations. You know, I contrast that now to our current division of biostatistics where we are over 20s, pushing 25, depending on exactly how you want to count. Hoping to bring a couple of new faculty on board this calendar year. We have a staff of about 25 statistical analysts. And database managers and programmers. So you know, when I came there were five faculty members and I think two master's level staff. We are now pushing, you know, pushing 50 people in our division here so it's a really thriving group.  

[00:05:26] Erin Spain, MS: in your opinion, what makes a good biostatistician? Do you have to have a little bit of a tough skin to be in this field?  

Denise Scholtens, PhD: I do think it's a unique person who wants to be a biostatistician. There are a variety of traits that can lead to success in this space. First of all, I think it's helpful to be wildly curious about somebody else's work. To be an excellent collaborative biostatistician, you have to be able to learn the language of another discipline. So some other clinical specialty or public health application. Another trait that makes a biostatistician successful is to be able to ask the right questions about data that will be collected or already have been collected. So understanding the subtleties there, the study design components that lead to why we have the data that we have. You know, a lot of our data, you could think of it in a simple flat file, right? Like a Microsoft Excel file with rows and columns. That certainly happens a lot, but there are a lot of incredibly innovative data types out there: wearables technology, imaging data, all kinds of high dimensional data. So I think a tenacity to understand all of the subtleties of those data and to be able to ask the right questions. And then I think for a biostatistician at a medical school like ours, being able to blend those two things, so understanding what the data are and what you have to work with and what you're heading toward, but then also facilitating the translation of those analytic findings for the audience that really wants to understand them. So for the clinicians, for the patients, for participants and the population that the findings would apply to.   

Erin Spain, MS: It must feel good, though, in those situations where you are able to help uncover something to improve a study or a trial.  

[00:07:07] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It really does. This is a job that's easy to get out of bed for in the morning. There's a lot of really good things that happen here. It's exciting to know that the work we do could impact clinical practice, could impact public health practice. I think in any job, you know, you can sometimes get bogged down by the amount of work or the difficulty of the work or the back and forth with team members. There's just sort of all of the day to day grind, but to be able to take a step back and remember the actual people who are affected by our own little niche in this world. It's an incredibly helpful and motivating practice that I often keep to remember exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing and who I'm doing it for.  

[00:07:50] Erin Spain, MS: Well, and another important part of your work is that you are a leader. You are leading the center, NUDACC, that you mentioned, Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center. Now, this has been open for about five years. Tell me about the center and why it's so crucial to the future of the field.  

[00:08:08] Denise Scholtens, PhD: We specialize at NUDACC in large scale, multicenter prospective studies. So these are the clinical trials or the observational studies that often, most conclusively, lead to clinical or public health practice decision making. We focus specifically on multicenter work. Because it requires a lot of central coordination and we've specifically built up our NUDACC capacity to handle these multi center investigations where we have a centralized database, we have centralized and streamlined data quality assurance pipelines. We can help with central team leadership and organization for large scale networks. So we have specifically focused on those areas. There's a whole lot of project management and regulatory expertise that we have to complement our data analytics strengths as well. I think my favorite part of participating in these studies is we get involved at the very beginning. We are involved in executive level planning of these studies. We oversee all components of study design. We are intimately involved in the development of the data capture systems. And in the QA of it. We do all of this work on the front end so that we get all of the fun at the end with the statistics and can analyze data that we know are scientifically sound, are well collected, and can lead to, you know, really helpful scientific conclusions.  

[00:09:33] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me about that synergy between the clinicians and the other investigators that you're working with on these projects.  

[00:09:41] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It is always exciting, often entertaining. Huge range of scientific opinion and expertise and points of view, all of which are very valid and very well informed. All of the discussion that could go into designing and launching a study, it's just phenomenally interesting and trying to navigate all of that and help bring teams to consensus in terms of what is scientifically most relevant, what's going to be most impactful, what is possible given the logistical strengths. Taking all of these well informed, valid, scientific points of view and being a part of the team that helps integrate them all toward a cohesive study design and a well executed study. That's a unique part of the challenge that we face here at NUDACC, but an incredibly rewarding one. It's also such an honor and a gift to be able to work with such a uniformly gifted set of individuals. Just the clinical researchers who devote themselves to these kinds of studies are incredibly generous, incredibly thoughtful and have such care for their patients and the individuals that they serve, that to be able to sit with them and think about the next steps for a great study is a really unique privilege.  

[00:10:51] Erin Spain, MS: How unique is a center like this at a medical school?  

[00:10:55] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It's fairly unique to have a center like this at a medical school. Most of the premier medical research institutions do have some level of data coordinating center capacity. We're certainly working toward trying to be one of the nation's best, absolutely, and build up our capacity for doing so. I'm actually currently a part of a group of data coordinating centers where it's sort of a grassroots effort right now to organize ourselves and come up with, you know, some unified statements around the gaps that we see in our work, the challenges that we face strategizing together to improve our own work and to potentially contribute to each other's work. I think maybe the early beginnings of a new professional organization for data coordinating centers. We have a meeting coming up of about, I think it's 12 to 15 different institutions, academic research institutions, specifically medical schools that have centers like ours to try to talk through our common pain points and also celebrate our common victories.  

[00:11:51] Erin Spain, MS: I want to shift gears a little bit to talk about some of your research collaborations, many of which focus on maternal and fetal health and pregnancy. You're now involved with a study with folks at the Ohio State University that received a 14 million grant looking at the effectiveness of aspirin in the prevention of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Tell me about this work.  

[00:12:14] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Yes, this is called the aspirin study. I suppose not a very creative name, but a very appropriate one. What we'll be doing in this study is looking at two different doses of aspirin for trying to prevent maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in women who are considered at high risk for these disorders. This is a huge study. Our goal is to enroll 10,742 participants. This will take place at 11 different centers across the nation. And yes, we at NUDACC will serve as the data coordinating center here, and we are partnering with the Ohio State University who will house the clinical coordinating center. So this study is designed to look at two different doses to see which is more effective at preventing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. So that would include gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. What's really unique about this study and the reason that it is so large is that it is specifically funded to look at what's called a heterogeneity of treatment effect. What that is is a difference in the effectiveness of aspirin in preventing maternal hypertensive disorders, according to different subgroups of women. We'll specifically have sufficient statistical power to test for differences in treatment effectiveness. And we have some high priority subgroups that we'll be looking at. One is a self-identified race. There's been a noted disparity in maternal hypertensive disorders, for individuals who self identify according to different races. And so we will be powered to see if aspirin has comparable effectiveness and hopefully even better effectiveness for the groups who really need it, to bring those rates closer to equity which is, you know, certainly something we would very strongly desire to see. We'll also be able to look at subgroups of women according to obesity, according to maternal age at pregnancy, according to the start time of aspirin when aspirin use is initiated during pregnancy. So that's why the trial is so huge. For a statistician, the statisticians out there who might be listening, this is powered on a statistical interaction term, which doesn't happen very often. So it's exciting that the trial is funded in that way.  

[00:14:27] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me a little bit more about this and how your specific skills are going to be utilized in this study.  

[00:14:32] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Well, there are three biostatistics faculty here at Northwestern involved in this. So we're definitely dividing and conquering. Right now, we're planning this study and starting to stand it up. So we're developing our statistical analysis plans. We're developing the database. We are developing our randomization modules. So this is the piece of the study where participants are randomized to which dose of aspirin they're going to receive. Because of all of the subgroups that we're planning to study, we need to make especially sure that the assignments of which dose of aspirin are balanced within and across all of those subgroups. So we're going to be using some adaptive randomization techniques to ensure that that balance is there. So there's some fun statistical and computer programming innovation that will be applied to accomplish those things. So right now, there are usually two phases of a study that are really busy for us. That's starting to study up and that's where we are. And so yes, it is very busy for us right now. And then at the end, you know, in five years or so, once recruitment is over, then we analyze all the data,  

[00:15:36] Erin Spain, MS: Are there any guidelines out there right now about the use of aspirin in pregnancy. What do you hope that this could accomplish?  

 Prescribing aspirin use for the prevention of hypertension during pregnancy is not uncommon at all. That is actually fairly routinely done, but that it's not outcomes based in terms of which dosage is most effective. So 81 milligrams versus 162 milligrams. That's what we will be evaluating. And my understanding is that clinicians prescribe whatever they think is better, and I'm sure those opinions are very well informed but there is very little outcome based evidence for this in this particular population that we'll be studying. So that would be the goal here, would be to hopefully very conclusively say, depending on the rates of the hypertensive disorders that we see in our study, which of the two doses of aspirin is more effective. Importantly, we will also be tracking any side effects of taking aspirin. And so that's also very much often a part of the evaluation of You know, taking a, taking a drug, right, is how safe is it? So we'll be tracking that very closely as well. Another unique part of this study is that we will be looking at factors that help explain aspirin adherence. So we are going to recommend that participants take their dose of aspirin daily. We don't necessarily expect that's always going to happen, so we are going to measure how much of their prescribed dose they are actually taking and then look at, you know, factors that contribute to that. So be they, you know, social determinants of health or a variety of other things that we'll investigate to try to understand aspirin adherence, and then also model the way in which that adherence could have affected outcomes.  

Erin Spain, MS: This is not the first study that you've worked on involving maternal and fetal health. Tell me about your interest in this particular area, this particular field, and some of the other work that you've done.  

[00:17:31] Denise Scholtens, PhD: So I actually first got my start in data coordinating work through the HAPO study. HAPO stands for Hyperglycemia Adverse Pregnancy Outcome. That study was started here at Northwestern before I arrived. Actually recruitment to the study occurred between 2000 and 2006. Northwestern served as the central coordinating center for that study. It was an international study of 25,000 pregnant individuals who were recruited and then outcomes were evaluated both in moms and newborns. When I was about mid career here, all the babies that were born as a part of HAPO were early teenagers. And so we conducted a follow up study on the HAPO cohort. So that's really when I got involved. It was my first introduction to being a part of a coordinating center. As I got into it, though, I saw the beauty of digging into all of these details for a huge study like this and then saw these incredible resources that were accumulated through the conduct of such a large study. So the data from the study itself is, was of course, a huge resource. But then also we have all of these different samples that sit in a biorepository, right? So like usually blood sample collection is a big part of a study like this. So all these really fun ancillary studies could spin off of the HAPO study. So we did some genomics work. We did some metabolomics work. We've integrated the two and what's called integrated omics. So, you know, my work in this space really started in the HAPO study. And I have tremendously enjoyed integrating these high dimensional data types that have come from these really rich data resources that have all, you know, resulted because of this huge multicenter longitudinal study. So I kind of accidentally fell into the space of maternal and fetal health, to be honest. But I just became phenomenally interested in it and it's been a great place.  

[00:19:24] Erin Spain, MS: Would you say that this is also a population that hasn't always been studied very much in biomedical science?  

[00:19:32] Denise Scholtens, PhD: I think that that is true, for sure. There are some unique vulnerabilities, right, for a pregnant individual and for the fetus, right, and in that situation. You know, the vast majority of what we do is really only pertaining to the pregnant participant but, you know, there are certainly fetal outcomes, newborn outcomes. And so, I think conducting research in this particular population is a unique opportunity and there are components of it that need to be treated with special care given sort of this unique phase of human development and this unique phase of life.  

[00:20:03] Erin Spain, MS: So, as data generation just really continues to explode, and technology is advancing so fast, faster than ever, where do you see this field evolving, the field of biostatistics, where do you see it going in the next five to ten years?  

[00:20:19] Denise Scholtens, PhD: That's a great question. I think all I can really tell you is that I'm continually surprised by new data types. I think that we will see an emergence of a whole new kind of technology that we probably can't even envision five years from now. And I think that the fun part about being a biostatistician is seeing what's happening and then trying to wrap your mind around the possibilities and the actual nature of the data that are collected. You know, I think back to 2004 and this whole high throughput space just felt so big. You know, we could look at gene transcription across the genome using one technology. And we could only look at one dimension of it. Right now it just seems so basic. When I think about where the field has come over the past 20 years, it's just phenomenal. I think we're seeing a similar emergence of the scale and the type of data in the imaging space and in the wearable space, with EHR data, just. You know, all these different technologies for capturing, capturing things that we just never even conceived of before. I do hope that we continue to emphasize making meaningful and translatable conclusions from these data. So actionable conclusions that can impact the way that we care for others around us. I do hope that remains a guiding principle in all that we do.  

[00:21:39] Erin Spain, MS: Why is Northwestern Medicine and Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine such a supportive environment to pursue this type of work?  

[00:21:47] Denise Scholtens, PhD: That's a wonderful question and one, honestly, that faculty candidates often ask me. When we bring faculty candidates in to visit here at Northwestern, they immediately pick up on the fact that we are a collaborative group of individuals who are for each other. Who want to see each other succeed, who are happy to share the things that we know and support each other's work, and support each other's research, and help strategize around the things that we want to accomplish. There is a strong culture here, at least in my department and in my division that I've really loved that continues to persist around really genuinely collaborating and genuinely sharing lessons learned and genuinely supporting each other as we move toward common goals. We've had some really strong, generous leadership who has helped us to get there and has helped create a culture where those are the guiding principles. In my leadership role is certainly something that I strive to maintain. Really hope that's true. I'm sure I don't do it perfectly but that's absolutely something I want to see accomplished here in the division and in NUDACC for sure.  

[00:22:50] Erin Spain, MS: Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us about your path here to Northwestern and all of the exciting work that we can look forward to in the coming years.  

[00:22:59] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed this.  

[00:23:01] Erin Spain, MS: You can listen to shows from the Northwestern Medicine Podcast Network to hear more about the latest developments in medical research, health care, and medical education. Leaders from across specialties speak to topics ranging from basic science to global health to simulation education. Learn more at feinberg. northwestern.edu/podcasts.  

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

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Minjung Kim receives Soros Fellowship for New Americans

• Student Awards
• Weinberg College

Minjung Kim, a graduate student in the department of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the 2024   Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans , a prestigious scholarship granted to immigrants or children of immigrants.

Kim is one of just 30 students nationwide to be awarded the fellowship, chosen for their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture or their academic field. The two-year fellowship provides up to $90,000 to cover graduate education expenses.

“The Soros Fellowship isn't just about celebrating the accomplishments of New Americans, it also highlights our experiences and struggles of having to navigate through different cultures, languages and identities,” Kim said. “Having been awarded this fellowship is incredibly validating, as it recognizes not just my scientific journey but also the challenges that my family and I faced as immigrants.”

Kim’s research interests include using metal-organic frameworks and photocatalysts for environmental remediation applications. She currently is co-advised by professors Omar Farha and Dayne Swearer. Kim hopes her fundamental studies in light-matter interactions of novel nanomaterials catalyze the implementation and expansion of direct air capture and environmental remediation. 

She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the United States when she was seven years old.  Kim grew up in Houston and received her bachelor’s degrees in chemical and biomolecular engineering and in chemistry at Rice University.

“Minjung’s array of engagements from environmental policy to music performance embodies the Soros Fellowship’s intention to integrate lessons learned from the immigrant experience in all facets of American life,” said Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, director of the Office of Fellowships. “A deep thinker about the human condition, Minjung is the sort of citizen scientist we need to build ethical and efficacious solutions for today and tomorrow.”

Hungarian immigrants Paul and Daisy Soros founded the Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 1997. Since then, the program has provided more than $80 million in funding, and recipients have studied a range of fields from medicine and the arts to law and business.

Northwestern students interested in pursuing scholarship and fellowship opportunities should contact the Office of Fellowships to learn more.

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College protests live updates: More protests, encampments pop up at Princeton, Northwestern and more

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up on an increasing number of college campuses following last week's arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University.

The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel's military efforts in Gaza - and in some cases from Israel itself.

Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they're inspired by peers at other universities.

A look at protests on campuses in recent days:

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The University of Southern California has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony as the campus is roiled by protests stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.

The university already canceled a commencement speech by the school's pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns.

The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 90 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest at the university for alleged trespassing. One person was arrested for alleged assault with a deadly weapon.

MORE | USC campus remains closed to public after mass arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators

LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz told reporters that there was an altercation, but she did not have specific details of the alleged assault. There were no reports of injuries. The university posted on X on Wednesday that it had closed campus and that police would arrest people who did not leave.

Earlier in the day police removed several tents, then got into a back-and-forth tent tugging match with protesters before falling back.

At one point, USC police detained a man and put him in a vehicle. A crowd surrounded the car and chanted "Let him go!" and the officers eventually did so.

• COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up a tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York last week. Police first tried to clear the encampment on April 18, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.

Columbia officials said that negotiations were showing progress as they neared the school's deadline of early Friday to reach an agreement on dismantling the encampment. Nevertheless, two police buses were parked nearby and there was a noticeable presence of private security and police at entrances to the campus.

MORE | Protests spread to other colleges in Tri-State amid criticism over response at Columbia

"We have our demands; they have theirs," said Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia University, adding that if the talks fail the university will have to consider other options.

Just past midnight, a group of some three dozen pro-Palestinian protesters handed out signs and started chanting outside of the locked Columbia University gates. They then marched away as at least 40 police officers assembled nearby.

Columbia University said it is enhancing security along the campus' perimeter after it was made aware of several "potentially significant" protests planned outside the gates of campus on Thursday evening.

The campus remains restricted to Columbia University ID holders.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia on Wednesday to meet with Jewish students over concerns about antisemitism on college campuses. Johnson said Israel and Jewish students on campus will not stand alone. Protesters nearby said they couldn't hear him and he responded, "Enjoy your free speech."

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

University of Texas students who were arrested Wednesday will not be facing charges at this time and have been ordered released due to deficiencies in probable cause, according to the Travis County Attorney's Office.

Dozens of police officers and state troopers, including some on horseback and holding batons, forcefully arrested more than two dozen student protesters and a local news photographer at the University of Texas at Austin Wednesday after university officials and the governor called authorities.

"Legal concerns were raised by defense counsel. We individually reviewed each case that was presented and agreed there were deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits. The Court affirmed and ordered the release of those individuals. We will continue to individually review all cases presented to our office to determine whether prosecution is factually and legally appropriate," the Travis County Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Protesters said they had planned a walkout and march to the main campus lawn, where students would occupy the space and host events throughout the afternoon. But the university said in a statement that it would "not tolerate disruptions" like those at other campuses.

As of Wednesday night, 34 people had been arrested related to the protest, according to a post on the social platform X by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Agency spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said troopers had responded at the request of university officials and Gov. Greg Abbott.

Abbott said on X that the protesters belong in jail, and that any student who joins what he called hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in the state should be expelled.

A photographer covering the demonstration for local Fox affiliate, Fox 7 Austin, was among those arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students. The station confirmed the arrest in its online story. Another journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and was seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff, who bandaged his head.

In a statement, University President Jay Hartzell said that peaceful protests within the university's rules are acceptable but that breaking the rules and disrupting others' ability to learn are not allowed.

"Our rules matter, and they will be enforced," his statement said. "Our University will not be occupied."

The University of California, Los Angeles said it is "actively monitoring" a demonstration after students erected an encampment Thursday morning.

"Our top priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our entire Bruin community," Mary Osako, a UCLA spokesperson, said in a statement. "We're actively monitoring this situation to support a peaceful campus environment that respects our community's right to free expression while minimizing disruption to our teaching and learning mission."

MORE | Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampment on UCLA campus

Access to the campus' Royce Hall and Powell Library has been restricted to students who present ID, the university said.

Students for Justice in Palestine, University of California Los Angeles, one of the organizers of the encampment, called on the university to divest of funds from Israeli military operations and said in a social media post that they are "staying until our demands are met."

BROWN UNIVERSITY

Brown University students began an encampment on campus Wednesday, with a student group warning other students that the university is threatening to crack down on protesters.

"Brown admin is using unprecedented repressive tactics to prevent peaceful student protest. They are doing random ID sweeps to identify people and threatening disciplinary action," the Brown Divest Coalition said in a statement on Instagram.

Students participating in the encampment "have been informed they will face conduct proceedings," Brown said in a statement to ABC News, because the encampment on the university's "greens" is a violation of policies. Brown added it has supported previous protests and activism on campus, including a hunger strike, that were "within the bounds of our policies."

"Protest is an acceptable means of expression at Brown, but it becomes unacceptable when it violates University policies that are intended to ensure the safety and security of members of the Brown community and that there is no interference in the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university. Early on Wednesday and periodically since, the University asked all participants in the encampment to present their Brown IDs to verify association with Brown for safety and security reasons and to appropriately address violations of policy," Brown said in a statement to ABC News.

"University administrators and the Department of Public Safety will continually monitor the situation and act as necessary. We have been troubled by reports of violence, harassment and intimidation at some encampments on other campuses, but we have not seen that kind of behavior at Brown. Any such behavior would not be tolerated," Brown said.

• PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Princeton University students began a Gaza solidarity encampment on Thursday, demanding the university divest from Israel and that Israel end its campaign on Gaza.

The students are also calling for an academic boycott of Israel and Israeli universities -- including ending study abroad programs with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, students said in a statement.

2 graduate students arrested at Princeton University as campuses grapple with protests

"Princeton students stand in solidarity with Columbia University's Gaza Solidarity Encampment, launched on April 17. They strongly condemn the decisions of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and Cal Poly Humboldt's administrations to employ militarized police against their own students and demand the immediate release of all arrested students, the immediate dropping of all charges, and the immediate revocation of suspensions and evictions," students said in a statement.

"Despite the systematic repression of pro-Palestinian voices, students will continue to stand their ground," students said.

Administrators say the encampment violates school policy.

"This morning, fewer than 100 people gathered on campus, and a small number began erecting about a half-dozen tents, which is a violation of University policy," a university spokesperson said in a statement "After repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease the activity and leave the area, two graduate students were arrested for trespassing. All tents were then voluntarily taken down by protestors. The two graduate students have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process."

• NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Students at Northwestern University began setting up an encampment on campus grounds Thursday morning, joining the growing list of students across the country demanding their schools divest from Israel and companies that support its campaign on Gaza.

Northwestern says setting up a tent encampment is "prohibited" under university policies and campus police are at the encampment, working to have the tents removed.

"Students who refuse to remove their tents will be subject to arrest and their tents will be removed by the University. Community members who do not adhere to University policies will face discipline," Northwestern University told ABC News in a statement.

MORE | Northwestern University students build encampment on Deering Meadow in pro-Palestinian protest

"Northwestern is committed to the principles of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly - and to protecting the safety of all members of our community, as well as limiting disruptions to University operations," Northwestern said.

The Northwestern University Divestment Coalition, a student group, says protesters are refusing to leave their encampment.

Videos and posts posted by other student groups on Instagram show police responding to the scene, warning students that they will begin issuing citations and arrests if they do not leave.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Two pro-Palestinian students participating in a protest on campus were arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal trespassing, after "repeated warnings to be quiet," said university spokesperson Ben Johnson.

About 50 protesters had gathered at a campus amphitheater to share stories about their connections to the Palestinian people before marching. While stopping at a building on the university's medical campus, two individuals became "disruptive," Johnson said. Per university policy, the students who were arrested will be referred to the student conduct office.

On Thursday evening, police clashed with protesters. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Trying to stay ahead of protests, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, locked most gates into its famous Harvard Yard ahead of classes Monday and limited access to those with school identification. The school also posted signs warning against setting up tents or tables on campus without permission. Those efforts didn't stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday, which came after a rally against the university's suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, HUMBOLDT

Protesters at the university used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building on Monday. Protesters chanted, "We are not afraid of you!" before officers in riot gear pushed into them at the building's entrance, video shows. University officials closed the campus through this weekend, saying instruction would continue to be remote. They said in a statement Tuesday that students had occupied a second building and three students had been arrested. On Wednesday, officials said some unidentified people who are not students were also inside one of the occupied buildings. Humboldt is located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

EMERSON COLLEGE

Boston Police said Thursday that 108 people were arrested at an encampment at Emerson College. Police said four officers suffered injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Those arrested were expected to appear in Boston Municipal Court.

On Tuesday, about 80 students and other supporters at Emerson College occupied a busy courtyard on the downtown Boston campus. College officials warned the students on Wednesday that some of the protesters were in violation of city ordinances, including by blocking a right-of-way and fire hydrants, and violating noise laws. The school said the alley where some protesters have set up tents is owned by the city, and Boston police have warned of imminent law enforcement action. The college said in a statement that campus police were offering escort services for students after officials received credible reports of some protesters engaging in "targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel."

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters earlier this week. Police on Wednesday said that 133 protesters had been taken into custody. They said all were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges.

EMORY UNIVERSITY

At Emory University in Atlanta, local and state police swept in to dismantle a camp. Some officers carried semiautomatic weapons, and video shows officers using a stun gun on one protester they had pinned to the ground. The university said late Thursday that objects were thrown at officers and they deployed "chemical irritants" as a crowd control measure.

Jail records showed 22 people arrested by Emory police were charged with disorderly conduct. Emory said it had been notified that 28 people were arrested, including 20 members of the university community, and some were released.

Law enforcement cleared a quad at Emory University where students had erected an encampment, the Atlanta university said.

DPS released an accounting of their response:

"On April 25, 2024, at 8:30 am, the Emory Police Department and Atlanta Police Department requested the assistance of DPS with an encampment protest at Emory University. Georgia State Troopers and Motor Carrier Officers responded to break up the encampment but were met with protestors who threw bottles and refused to leave," the statement began.

"As Troopers and Officers began to take the protestors into custody, one actively resisted arrest," DPS said, noting they used a Taser on the individual as they "continued to resist."

DPS said during its response to the encampment, "Troopers deployed pepper balls to control the unruly crowd but did not use tear gas."

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

An encampment at the center of the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor had grown to about 40 tents on Tuesday. Almost every student there wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered. Student protesters declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution by the university. One student stood near the encampment passing out small flags of Israel, saying he didn't want Jewish students walking through campus to only see the protesters.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar attended a protest at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, hours after nine demonstrators were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. Hundreds had rallied to demand their release. Omar's daughter was among the protesters arrested at Columbia last week.

On Wednesday, more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter calling on the University of Minnesota's president to drop any charges, lift any ban on the arrestees' presence on campus and to allow future encampments.

• YALE UNIVERSITY

Police arrested 48 protesters, including four who were not students, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of Yale University's campus in New Haven, Connecticut, on Monday.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, had set up about 30 tents as of Tuesday.

NORTHEASTERN

Northeastern University in Boston said it will "take action accordingly" against pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating on its Centennial Quad on Thursday.

"The quads on Northeastern's Boston campus are reserved by the division of Student Life for scheduled university events," a university spokesperson said in a statement. "Students currently demonstrating on Centennial Quad do not have authorization and are in violation of the Code of Student Conduct. Those who are not affiliated with Northeastern are trespassing. The university will take action accordingly."

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.

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Spanish, bilingual course from WSU Extension creates climate ambassadors

To reach thousands of northwestern Washington residents who do not speak English fluently but may want to protect the environment, Washington State University Extension is offering new educational programs in Spanish including the “Promotores del Clima” program — climate ambassadors.

“We’re taking this step to offer bilingual and Spanish programming to support underserved populations in Washington state,” said Patricia Townsend, associate professor based at Snohomish County Extension. “The learning and volunteer impacts are greater when we incorporate the voices of those we serve.”

Townsend is using funding from a National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning grant to support the climate ambassadors program and other similar outreach. She has run additional bilingual programs since 2016, when she helped initiate the “Promotores de Energía” (energy ambassadors). The climate ambassadors programming stems from those earlier initiatives.

Though Townsend procures the grants, she recognizes that she would not be effective at delivering educational content for the course.

“I’ve learned that even if I spoke fluent Spanish, I’m not the right person to deliver this programming,” she said. “It’s important to have educators who grew up in the culture.”

Townsend instead leans on WSU Extension Lead Educator Cristina Ocaña Gallegos. A WSU alumna with a bachelor’s in plant biotechnology and master’s in crop science, she currently works at the  Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center  as a research technician in plant pathology.

Ocaña Gallegos meets with the climate ambassadors at the WSU Everett campus for three hours each Saturday, lecturing and facilitating guest speakers such as  Biological Systems Engineering Department Chair Manuel Garcia-Pérez , who will present this month.

“We’ve learned from past surveys that many people feel powerless in the face of climate change,” Ocaña Gallegos said. “This course empowers participants to dive into the science, engage in teamwork, and reach out to their communities to make a difference.”

Through interactive and hands-on workshops, participants are trained to educate Latine or Hispanic families and communities how to care for the environment. One particularly memorable and experiential portion of the course includes layering an unlucky volunteer in six blankets, each representing the most common greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. At the end of the course, participants deliver and present a final project.

“One group of women educated on fast fashion – what it is and the impacts stemming from it,” said Ocaña Gallegos. “Someone else wrote a beautifully illustrated book for young children that raises awareness about the changing climate.”

Ocaña Gallegos and Townsend have found that the programming tends to appeal to all. One course included three generations of the same family, from the grandfather to the teens.

“We couldn’t have recruited this diverse body of participants without the support of our partners, particularly the  Latino Educational Training Institute  (LETI), who helped us to get the word out,” said Townsend.

The current group of climate ambassadors will relay their knowledge and partake in science-based environmental outreach with educational games like  Climate Change Lotería , developed by the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center at University of Washington. They also host booths at summer events including the LETI  Latino Expo , educating peers on the many effects and causes of modern-day climate change.

“People walk away with a deeper understanding of the science behind climate change, and they’re energized to spread the word and take steps to reduce their own impacts,” Ocaña Gallegos said. “It’s why we started the program, and it’s rewarding to see these results.”

Further information

Get involved with Promotores del Clima or learn more by reaching out to Associate Professor Patricia Townsend. Another program in Spanish, the  Promotores del medio Ambiente  (ambassadors of the environment), will resume in fall 2024.

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