History of BGS
In the fall of 1984, the University appointed a Director of Biomedical Graduate Studies to provide leadership to 13 graduate groups that had been operating essentially autonomously and to coordinate the activities of the groups, particularly in the areas of recruitment and academic programs. The School of Medicine provided administrative oversight, financial support, and office space for program staff.
A number of new initiatives were undertaken immediately. An Advisory Committee, consisting of the chairs of each of the graduate groups was established to discuss general policy. A single Admissions Committee was instituted, representing all of the graduate groups, and the principle was established that in general only students sufficiently distinguished to merit full support would be accepted. A Curriculum Committee was established to identify new academic programmatic needs and to establish mechanisms for quality control of the courses offered by the graduate groups; on the committee’s recommendation, new courses were developed. The Curriculum Committee was also designated to act as a student standards committee.
In 1987, participation on the Advisory Committee was extended to the Director of Combined Degree and Physician Scholars Programs and to the Chairpersons of the Graduate Groups in Bioengineering and Biology. Because the lines of fiscal support for the Graduate Groups in Biology and in Bioengineering remain separate from those of BGS, the representatives of these two graduate groups do not vote on issues involving fiscal matters.
The faculty who participated on these committees, in cooperation with the Director of BGS, helped to develop the policies and procedures for the program. Furthermore, several major academic developments have occurred since the program’s formation:
- Merger of three formerly independent graduate groups in Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Microbiology into a single integrated group, Molecular Biology (1985)
- Phasing out of the independent graduate groups in Anatomy and Structural Biology (1989) and Comparative Medical Sciences (1996)
- Introduction of the BGS Undeclared program, which allows students to enter graduate training in biomedical science without designation of a defined area of specialization for the first year (1986)
- Creation of the Cell Biology graduate group in (1987)
- Merger of the graduate groups in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Physiology, and Pathology into a single, integrated group, Cell and Molecular Biology, with six focused tracks (1995)
- Creation of the graduate group in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, with initial development of a PhD program in Epidemiology (1995) (the M.S. program in Clinical Epidemiology program remained administratively separate from BGS)
- Merger of the graduate groups of Biochemistry and Biophysics into one graduate group, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (1997)
- Creation of a Biostatistics track for M.S. and Ph.D. training within the graduate group of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (1999)
- Development of a core BGS curriculum, recommended for most BGS students, by a BGS Curriculum Reform Task Force (2000)
- Creation of the graduate group in Genomics and Computational Biology (2001)
- Merger of the Parasitology graduate group with the Microbiology and Virology program of CAMB (2004)
In addition, several administrative developments have occurred since the creation of BGS:
- Establishment of fully-funded fellowships for all students accepted to BGS, excluding students with professional degrees (1993)
- Establishment of a 2nd BGS office for the administration of BGS funding and the centralization of payments of student stipends, tuition, and fees by the BGS office (2000)
- Provision of basic financial support for each graduate group by BGS, including staff salary support, recruitment expenses, and general operating expenses (implemented gradually)
- Central support from BGS for the development of training grant proposals and the financial administration of training grants (implemented gradually)
- Development of BGS-wide student records and faculty teaching databases with support from the School of Medicine’s Office of Information Services
The following individuals have served as Director of BGS:
- Saul Winegrad, Professor of Physiology, 1984-1994
- Neal Nathanson, Professor of Microbiology, 1994 (interim, summer 1994)
- Willys Silvers, Professor of Genetics, 1994 (interim, fall 1994)
- Glen Gaulton, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, 1/1995-12/1998
- Michael Selzer, Professor of Neurology, 1/1999-6/2002
- Susan Ross, Professor of Microbiology, 7/2002-2012 (interim in 2002-2003)
- Rick Assoian, Professor of Pharmacology, 2012-2013 (interim)
- Michael Nusbaum, Professor of Neuroscience, 4/2013 - present
