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 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 biology. 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.

Courses required for the major in biochemistry are:CH 387D or 387K, CH 394, CH 395G, and CH 395J. Most students take two and one-half years to earn the Master of Arts.

Doctor of Philosophy

For admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, a student must complete the following courses with a grade of at least B in each: CH 387D or 387K, CH 394, CH 395G, and CH 395J. Students are also required to complete two elective courses, which may be selected from Chemistry 395F, 395H, certain topics of CH 391L, or, with the approval of the graduate adviser, other upper-division or graduate courses. Students must complete CH 192G five times and make four presentations, which is normally accomplished by the end of the third year of the graduate program. A qualifying examination 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 his or her ability to do independent research.

After the requirements for admission to candidacy have been completed, the chair of the Graduate Studies Committee petitions the dean of the Graduate School to appoint a dissertation committee. 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 chair of the dissertation committee.

Dual Degree Program

Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Medicine

The graduate program in biochemistry participates in a dual degree program with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). Applicants must apply separately to and be admitted to both the PhD program in biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and the medical school at UTMB. Students accepted into the dual degree program spend their first two years in the medical school at UTMB, followed by at least three to four years of doctoral work at UT Austin and eighteen months of clinical rotations. The degrees are conferred separately by each institution. Additional information may be found at http://www.mdphd.utexas.edu/ .