Education

Microbiology graduate students are trained in Penn Graduate Groups, which include the Microbiology/ Virology/ Parasitology track (MVP), the Immunology Graduate Group (IGG) or the Genomics and Computational Biology Graduate Group (GCB). All three graduate groups draw Penn faculty from the schools of MedicineVeterinary MedicineDental Medicine, and Arts and Sciences, as well as investigators at the adjacent Wistar Institute, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The department also awards a prize for excellence in microbiology to one student each year: see the Fraser Prize.

Postdoctoral fellows are also encouraged to participate in mentoring programs organized by the Department and by Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs. Seven NIH-funded training grants help support both pre- and postdoctoral trainees in microbiology.

Numerous seminars take place each week, including: the Tuesday noon Virology Seminar series for trainees, the Tuesday afternoon Immunology Colloquium, the Wednesday noon Microbiology Seminar series and the Friday noon Prokaryotic Seminar series for trainees.

Numerous seminars take place each week, including: the Monday Prokaryotic Genomics seminar at 4pm for trainees, Tuesday noon Virology Seminar series for trainees, the Tuesday afternoon Immunology Colloquium, and the Wednesday noon Microbiology Seminar series.

Special events include the Nathanson Lectureship that is given each spring, an Alumni Day each semester in which a former Penn student or postdoc returns to campus to give a seminar and to meet with students, and various one-day research retreats held by individual Graduate Groups, Centers and Institutes such as the Center for AIDS Research and the Abramson Cancer Center, and the PennCHOP Microbiome Program.

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