About Us

Our graduate Program Allows you to select courses that best reflect your personal research goals. 

The Ph.D. in Integrative Life Sciences is designed for students who want to conduct research that is integrative across multiple disciplines and that takes a systems approach to emerging research questions across the many fields that comprise the life sciences.

The ILS Doctoral program has significant differences from typical discipline-specific graduate program by way of supporting all life science disciplines across both the Monroe Park and MCV campuses of VCU.  By its structure, the ILS program is collaborative in nature, with faculty from different academic units (Environmental Studies, Biology, Forensic Science, Psychiatry, Bioinformatics, Engineering) serving on the ILS Graduate Committee. The Committee provides input on all program decisions including policies, curriculum, and admissions.

The ILS program serves as one of the few programs that spans both campuses of VCU and – beyond a small set of core courses – provides students the flexibility in coursework requirements and the built-in exposure to a breadth of life science fields. The collaborative nature of the program also provides ILS doctoral students with a flexible course of study and exposure to interdisciplinary research through interactions with researchers (research seminar), students (student seminar), and the annual ILS Student Showcase,  where ILS students conduct a research symposium to share their research both through oral and poster presentations.

By continuing to serve in the role of an integrative, interdisciplinary program across campus, students are able to conduct research in different labs and help grow research in academic units across campus.

 

Our Mission

• Integrate life sciences teaching, research and service across the entire VCU campus.
• Offer a highly interdisciplinary approach to research, instruction and service.
• Combine the strengths of the university with those of local businesses, industry, government and community organizations to create and nurture partnerships.
• Initiate activities and events at the local, regional and national levels to increase public discovery and literacy in the life sciences.

 

Our Vision

The Ph.D. in Integrative Life Sciences is designed for students who want to conduct research that is integrative across multiple disciplines and that takes a systems approach to emerging research questions across the many fields that comprise the life sciences.  Our vision is to recruit, support, and encourage students in their scientific journey to have positive impacts in their respective fields.