Neuroscience

​The Neuroscience graduate program seeks to advance research contributing to the understanding of the brain and mental health, promote independent thinking and prepare graduate leaders to excel in any field of human endeavor. The program is ideal for inquisitive students with high scholastic achievement​ driven to understand who and what we are, and who wish to better the mental and physical health of all members of our society. Doctoral students contribute to new discoveries, advance the field of neuroscience and gain a toolkit of skills and experiences that will help them take their place at the forefront of health care. Students will focus on both disease and fundamental understanding of the brain, learning in a faculty that fosters interaction between clinical and basic scientists.

Completing this program

• Courses: Topics include cellular, molecular and developmental neuroscience, systems neuroscience and neuropathology and others.

• Research Ethics: Students are required to attend Research Integrity Day sessions in the first year of their program.

• Sex & Gender Module: Students are required to complete one of the CIHR sex and gender online training modules found at discoversexandgender.ca in the first year of their program.

• Candidacy: Students will complete both oral and written candidacy exams.

• Seminars: Students will participate in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute seminar program and a journal club.

• Research Proposal: Students must defend a written research proposal to their supervisory committee. 

• Thesis: Students will be required to submit and defend an original research thesis.

• (Optional) Interdisciplinary Specialization I: A specialization in computational neuroscience is available. Additional information can also be found here.

• (Optional) Interdisciplinary Specialization II: A specialization in medical imaging is also available. Additional information can also be found here.

Outcomes

Careers that demand a high degree of intellectual performance, positions of leadership, academia (teachers, administrators, researchers), medicine - clinician researchers, pharmaceutical industry, entrepreneurial endeavors, Fortune 500 companies, biomedical sales.

A PhD in neuroscience is usually considered a final degree; many graduates go on to pursue post-doctoral research.