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Registrar's Web Team
19 August 1997
Degrees Offered
Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy
Research in biochemistry is carried out in the Biochemical Institute and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Facilities available through the department are listed in the description of the graduate program in chemistry.
Graduate study in biochemistry is offered in a wide range of areas, including drug metabolism; nutritive aspects of human disease; metabolic regulation; structure and function of enzymes, toxins, and contractile proteins; mechanism and regulation of protein biosynthesis; cloning, sequencing, and site-directed mutagenesis of enzyme-coding genes; enzymology of DNA repair and replication; and biochemical taxonomy. Details are available from the graduate adviser.
Students seeking a graduate degree in biochemistry must have a bachelor's degree or the equivalent in a cognate area, such as chemistry, biology, physics, or microbiology, with the following preparation: mathematics through one year of calculus; chemistry, including organic chemistry, biochemistry, and physical chemistry; general physics; and biology, including cell biology. Deficiencies in undergraduate courses, if not too extensive, may be corrected during the student's first two semesters in the graduate program. These courses are usually not counted toward graduate degrees.
Degree Requirements
One semester of Chemistry 398T is required of all candidates for advanced degrees.
Master of Arts
Master's degree students must complete at least thirty semester hours of coursework and normally must submit a thesis based on individual research. The thesis course may be counted as six of the thirty semester hours required for the degree. A minor of at least six semester hours is required, which may be in another area of chemistry, such as organic or physical chemistry, or in a related discipline, such as microbiology, zoology, or botany. No more than nine semester hours of upper-division coursework may be counted; these hours must be divided between the major and the minor field, with no more than six hours in the major field and three in the minor. The Master of Arts degree with report is available for approved programs only.
Courses required for the major in biochemistry are Chemistry 387K, 392C, 392D, 394, and at least six additional semester hours of organized coursework, exclusive of conference courses, approved by the Graduate Studies Committee or the graduate adviser. In general, one and one-half to two years are necessary to finish the Master of Arts.
Doctor of Philosophy
For admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, a student must pass, with a grade of B or better, six organized courses, including Chemistry 387K, 392C, 392D, and 394. A qualifying examination in biochemistry designed to test the student's knowledge of the basic principles of biochemistry must be completed within the first two years. A major part of this examination consists of a research proposal written in the form used for a National Institutes of Health grant application. The student presents and defends this proposal orally and is examined in terms of ability to do independent research.
After the requirements for admission to candidacy have been completed, the chairman of the Graduate Studies Committee in biochemistry petitions the dean of the Graduate School to appoint a dissertation committee. Doctoral students are required to register for six semesters of Chemistry 192G and make four presentations during that period. A student must do dissertation research under the supervision of a member of the Graduate Studies Committee. Generally this faculty member, chosen by mutual consent of the student and the professor, serves as chairman of the dissertation committee.
Campus address: Robert A. Welch Hall (WEL) 2.204, Phone (512)
471-4538,
Fax (512) 475-8839
Mailing address: Graduate Program in Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1167
URL: http://huckel.cm.utexas.edu/
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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